Ohio Athletic Conference Preview

Ohio Athletic Conference Championships – 11 qualifiers
Saturday, February 26, 2011 at Ohio Northern
Returning Qualifiers/AA: Riki Reynolds (Mount Union, 125), Tom D’Alessandro (Heidelberg, 133), Luke Miller (Ohio Northern, 1st, 157), Matt Curley (Heidelberg, 165), Kyle Kwiat (Ohio Northern, 4th, 174), Bill Schindel (Mount Union, 7th, 197)

There has been a bit of a changing of the guard in the Ohio Athletic Conference over the past few years. After John Carroll took the early decade titles, Heidelberg came in and dominated the last half of the decade. Now that it is 2011, Mount Union has won the dual meet title and is poised to take its first OAC crown since 1997. The 8th ranked Purple Raiders have a strong team led by two time All-American Bill Schindel and do not have many holes in the lineup. They finished the year undefeated and are on a roll. They will be challenged, however, by Ohio Northern and their potent 1-2 punch of NCAA Champ Luke Miller at 165 and reigning d3wrestle.com Freshman of the Year Kyle Kwiat at 174. Tournament scoring is different than dual meets, and those two will be high scorers for the Polar Bears. Baldwin-Wallace and Heidelberg each have some talented individuals who will challenge for one of the 11 spots available at the NCAA Championships.

125
d3wrestle.com Ranked Individuals – Reynolds (Mount Union, 9th)
Reynolds was the champion last year and should be able to repeat. He got off to a bit of a rocky start at 133 before making the wise decision and dropping to 125. Since then, he has only lost to All-American Roberts of Augsburg in DIII and was 2nd at the tough Wheaton Invitational. It looks like a pretty sizable step down to the next group of guys at this weight, though Herrington of Wilmington gave Reynolds a 5-4 match recently and Cobos of John Carroll went 3-1 with him. Neither of them have the body of work that competes with Reynolds, but they can try to pull the upset if they can keep it close. Dombrady of Baldwin-Wallace probably has the best record of the challengers, but he just lost by 11 to Reynolds last week.

133
d3wrestle.com Ranked Individuals – D’Alessandro (Heidelberg, Contender), Halko (Muskingum, HM)
D’Alessandro won the weight last year and has come through an abbreviated 2011 season as the top contender at this weight. Dennis of Mount Union and Halko of Muskingum have had similar seasons with identical 19-9 records, while Dennis has beaten Halko. Payne of Baldwin-Wallace also has a win over Halko and a loss to Dennis, so that probably makes Dennis #2 behind D’Alessandro at this weight. While the weight is not very strong in the national sense, it should be very competitive.

141
d3wrestle.com Ranked Individuals – Malave (Mount Union, Contender)
Malave place 2nd last year, just missing out on a trip to Iowa, but he is the favorite this time around to make it one step higher on the OAC podium and punch his ticket to La Crosse. He has had a good year, losing mostly to ranked wrestlers. Hoopes of ONU and Ryan of John Carroll are the top contenders here, but both have lost close to Malave and cannot match his record of success so far. While 133 seemed like it could be competitive, 141 looks like the favorite is pretty clear.

149
d3wrestle.com Ranked Individuals – Shadrach (Mount Union, HM)
Shadrach has had a good year including a 3rd place finish at the Petrofes tournament, an 8th place finish at Wheaton, and 23 wins on the year. None of his competitors here can match any of that, and the best they can say is that some have kept it close. Johnson of Heidelberg lost 6-4, but Locsei of John Carroll went down 5-0. There is a group of wrestlers who are just above .500 on the year, but Shadrach is another clear favorite in a weight without much in the way of national level wrestlers.

157
d3wrestle.com Ranked Individuals – Painter (Ohio Northern, Contender)
Painter has placed in the top three in four different tournaments, highlighted by his 3rd place finish at Wheaton. Finally, though, this is a weight class with a number of wrestlers who have cracked 20 wins on the year. Spooner of Mount Union has 24, while Leonard of Baldwin-Wallace spent the whole year at 165 before dropping in the season’s final week to bring his 22 wins to bear. A wildcard here could be Barnett of Heidelberg. He is 10-3 and just defeated Spooner in his first year of wrestling in a while. Barnett was a 2001 Ohio state champ and made his return to competition this year. He also spent a chunk of the year at 165 before dropping to 157 for the last push. Painter is a definite favorite, but he should be challenged.

165
d3wrestle.com Ranked Individuals – Miller (Ohio Northern, 6th), Curley (Heidelberg, 8th)
This is a two man race with 2010 157 lb. champ Miller in the pole position. Miller has four losses, but only one to a DIII competitor at 165. His last win also came at the expense of Curley, giving him the momentum heading into the tournament. Curley was the OAC champ last season at this weight and lost in the All-American round at the NCAA tournament. He has since avenged that loss this year and has just one other DIII loss besides the recent one to Miller. This is the only weight with a possible matchup of 2010 NCAA qualifiers, but the next one also features multiple past qualifiers.

174
d3wrestle.com Ranked Individuals – Kwiat (Ohio Northern, 1st), Scavuzzo (Baldwin-Wallace, Contender)
Kwiat was 4th in the NCAA last year during a tremendous freshman campaign that earned him the d3wrestle.com first ever Freshman of the Year award. He has followed that year up by attaining a #1 national ranking in a tough weight class. He will certainly be challenged in the OAC by Scavuzzo of Baldwin-Wallace, a very big 174 lb. wrestler who is 32-2 and has been at the NCAA tournament in the past. He also recently defeated a bumped up Luke Miller in the ONU vs B-W dual meet. Williams of Heidelberg, Gaydosh of John Carroll, and Hathaway of Mount Union make up the rest of the challengers here.

184
d3wrestle.com Ranked Individuals – Jenkins (Mount Union, Contender), Rigsby (Heidelberg, HM)
Jenkins was 2nd at Petrofes, 6th at Wheaton, and he also has a win against a bumped up Kwiat in a dual meet. He has, however, gone 2-1 against the next top contender Steinmetz of John Carroll. Steinmetz has lost to Georgian of Baldwin-Wallace, and Georgian has lost to Raber of Ohio Northern. It will be a messy weight to seed, but Jenkins should be the favorite, if not overwhelmingly so. Steinmetz has proven he can win against Jenkins, but he can also be beaten by others at this weight.

197
d3wrestle.com Ranked Individuals – Schindel (Mount Union, 4th), Stoll (Baldwin-Wallace, HM), Alexander (Ohio Northern, HM), Lovins (Heidelberg, HM)
Schindel placed 8th as a freshman before following it up with a 7th place finish a year ago. This year, he has had another very good season, only losing to an NAIA wrestler in the Wheaton finals. He has not had a ton of matches where the outcome was ever in doubt, and he has dominated the OAC field so far. No one is really in position to take the top spot away from him, but a trio of d3wrestle.com Honorable Mention wrestlers will give it a shot in a fairly deep weight. Stoll of B-W is 19-5 and should be the #2 seed at the tournament. He defeated Alexander of Ohio Northern and Lovins of Heidelberg, though Alexander does have a common opponent win over Stoll in Leonard of Olivet. Schindel is so far ahead of these guys that the main drama will come in La Crosse when he tries to exceed his #4 ranking.

285
d3wrestle.com Ranked Individuals – Hesson (Mount Union, HM), Knapp (Heidelberg, HM)
Hesson is the favorit here with wins over both Knapp and Jones of Baldwin-Wallace. Swain of Wilmington could enter the picture here as he has a win by fall over Hesson and a decision over Jones. Knapp has beaten Jones and Swain. Hesson was the runner-up at this weight in 2010 and has been the heir apparent all year. If he can avoid whateve tripped him up against Swain, he has a good shot to be the OAC representative at this weight.