Logan Stieber took home a national championship title for the second year in a row as the Ohio State wrestling team earned sixth place out of 10 teams at the NCAA Championships over the weekend.
The Buckeyes, who tallied 59.5 points, finished behind Penn State (123.5), Oklahoma State (119.5), Minnesota (103), Iowa (73) and Cornell (65). The Nittany Lions’ national title is their third in a row.
Redshirt sophomore Stieber, of the 133-pound weight class, was the star of the tournament for OSU.
Stieber, the No. 1 seed, capped off a perfect season, 27-0, with his defeat of Iowa redshirt junior and No. 2-seeded Tony Ramos 7-4.
In the pair’s last meeting at the Big Ten Championship finals on March 10, Stieber took down Ramos, 3-1, in a sudden victory. But the wins are nothing out of the ordinary: lifetime, Stieber is 5-0 against the Hawkeye.
“I was able to get into my offense early and open the match up against Ramos,” Stieber said in a press release. “That was the difference this time.”
Stieber’s brother, sophomore Hunter Stieber, finished third in the 141-pound class.
In Hunter Stieber’s semifinals match, the No. 1 seed suffered a narrow 7-6 loss to Edinboro’s Mitchell Port before earning consecutive victories over Cornell’s Michael Nevinger (9-0) and the Citadel’s Ugi Khishignyam (12-4).
Overall, Hunter Stieber finished his second All-American season with an impressive 36-1 record.
Fellow two-time All-American and redshirt junior Nick Heflin finished fifth in the tournament at 174 pounds. After being defeated by Minnesota’s Logan Storley, 3-2, Heflin was sent to the fifth-place bout to face-off with Iowa’s Michael Evans.
In their previous matchup on Jan. 4, Evans beat Heflin in a 9-4 sudden victory. However, the story was different this time as Heflin pinned his opponent in 2:10 to earn the win. He concluded his season with a 20-7 record.
Senior Nikko Triggas (125 pounds), redshirt senior C.J. Magrum (184), redshirt sophomore Josh Demas (157) and freshman Mark Martin (165) were all eliminated on the second day of the tournament.
Redshirt junior Ian Paddock (149) and sophomore Andrew Campolattano (197) were eliminated on the tournament’s first day.
The championships were held at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.