The Buckeyes put together one of the most memorable performances in NCAA History over the last three days in St. Louis, Missouri. The Iowa Hawkeyes, who everyone thought would run away with the NCAA Title, were behind the Buckeyes the whole tournament until the finals began. Even during the finals, it looked like Goliath would fall at any time. This was especially evident after the Hawkeyes Goliath himself, Brent Metcalf at 149 pounds, was slaughtered in the finals by Darrion Caldwell of North Carolina State. Ohio State put three wrestlers in the NCAA finals in Reece Humphrey at 133 pounds, J. Jaggers at 141 pounds and Mike Pucillo at 184 pounds. Reece and Pucillo, however, fell in the finals in close bouts. Humphrey lost a Big Ten Tournament final rematch with Frank Gomez of Michigan State. Pucillo lost to Big Ten champion and Hodge Trophy winner Jake Herbert of Northwestern. Jaggers repeated his national champion performance of a season ago and he did it in memorable fashion. Jaggers avenged an early season loss to Gallick of Iowa State, by pinning Gallick in the first period with his trademark cradle. He then repeated this in the semi-finals by pinning Chris Drouin of Arizona State with the same cradle in 4:27. The finals saw J. Jaggers defeat 8th seeded Ryan Williams for his second consecutive national title. Lance Palmer finished in 4th place at 149 pounds for his third consecutive All-American performance.
We couldn't have asked for more from the wrestling Buckeyes. Each Buckeye wrestler won at least one match at the national tournament. Colt Sponseller lost two consecutive nail biter matches at 165 pounds to miss All-American status by one match. One of those matches was a 4-2 overtime heartbreaking defeat to 2nd seeded Ryan Morningstar of Iowa. The Buckeyes finished as national runner-ups for the second year in a row, this time only 4 points out of the top spot to the Iowa Hawkeyes. Congratulations Buckeyes!!
