Senior heavyweight Tommy Rowlands won his second national championship and
the Buckeyes finished a surprising third today in the NCAA national wrestling
tournament in St. Louis.
Rowlands (44-1) capped off a stellar OSU career with a one-sided 6-2 win over
Pat Cummins of Penn State. Rowlands jumped out early with a takedown in the
first and controlled the match from there, later adding points for a takedown in
the second. Cummins dealt Rowlands his only loss this year, but he was unable to
execute any offense against Rowlands this evening.
Rowlands, who came to OSU from Columbus Bishop Ready in 1999, finishes his
career as Ohio State's all-time leader in wins, takedowns and team points.
The Buckeyes finished a surprising third as a team after a disappointing
finish in the Big Ten meet. OSU took five wrestlers to the NCAA tournament and
each one won All-American honors. J.D. Bergman took third at 197, while John Clark and Blake Kaplan finished fifth at 165 and 184 respectively. Jeff Ratliff
placed eighth at 149.
Oklahoma State repeated as national champions with 123.5 points. Iowa
finished second with 82.0 while Ohio State and Lehigh tied for third with 77.5
points.