DELAWARE, Ohio – The Ohio Wesleyan University wrestling team hosted their second of two duals season at Branch Rickey Arena on Friday night, hosting Hiram. It was senior night for the Battling Bishops as they honored senior
Gabe Bulugaris before the first match.
The dual itself was a bit of a back-and-forth affair with the Red and Black mounting a comeback in the final three matches to tie 24-24 after the heavyweight match. Ultimately Hiram would walk away with the win at 25-24 on the fourth tiebreaker.
The Bishops slip to 1-1 in duals this season. Bethany breaks even at 3-3. Hiram improves to 2-7.
The night started 6-6 after a forfeit from each team in the 125 and 133 matches.
Matthew Plum then put OWU ahead 11-6 with a tech fall win in the 141 match, taking a 19-3 advantage just 1:43 in. Next, the Terriers took the 149 match from Bulugaris on a 10-4 decision to make it 11-9.
Hiram managed to pull ahead after
Cris Hernandez was defeated in the 157 match, 9-0 on major decision, making it 13-11. The Terriers tallied six more in the 165 match as
Skyler Cornell fell by fall at the 3:45 mark to take the score to 19-11. That eight-point lead for Hiram was extremely short-lived as
Magnus Lloyd forced a fall in just 14 seconds in the 174 match to take the deficit down to just two at 19-17.
Hiram mustered another win in the 184 match with
Andrew Mushkin succumbing to a tech fall, 18-1 at the 5:33 mark. This made it 24-17. Then
Chuck Thomas sparked an Ohio Wesleyan comeback with a win by 13-4 major decision in the 197 match to bring it back within three at 24-21. Thus, it all came down to the 285 heavyweight match where
Tyler Lorenzen took a 6-2 decision to make it all square at 24-24.
It took four rounds of tiebreakers to finally decide the victor, that being total near fall points in matches that resulted in decisions, major decisions, and tech falls. Hiram would win that category 12-10 to take the tiebreaker point and the dual, 25-24.
UP NEXT
The Battling Bishops take the weekend off before returning to action next Saturday, January 31st, at the Wabash Invitational in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
