The Ohio State Wrestling team will have two members representing Team USA at the U23 Freestyle World Championships for the second year in a row.
Last year, Myles Martin and Kollin Moore advanced, this year, Chase Singletary and incoming freshman Greg Kerkvliet will represent the Buckeyes at the U23 World Team Championships.
Singletary moved down to 97kg for the U23 World Team Trials. This is an interesting move as it could reflect the lineup for Ohio State after Kollin Moore graduates.
Singletary looked impressive at his new weight class, starting the tournament 10-0, 12-2, and 14-3. Singletary wrestled All-American Ben Honis from Cornell in the third match.
In the best of three finals, Singletary wrestled NC State’s Michael Boykin. Singletary won both matches by a score of 8-5 and 10-10 on criteria. (If a match ends in a tie, the wrestler who scored the highest point value move will win by criteria.)
Greg Kerkvliet wrestled in the 125kg weight class this past weekend. Kerkvliet hasn’t even wrestled for the Scarlet and Grey yet and is making his presence known.
Kerkvliet won 10-0, 10-0, 10-0, 10-0 in his first four matches. Kerkvliet then faced Lehigh’s Jordan Wood in the best of three 125kg finals. Wood was All-American this past season and past Cadet World Silver Medalist. Kerkvliet swept Wood 6-5, 6-3.
In his post-match interview, Kerkvliet stated he plans to redshirt this year for the Buckeyes. He also commented that he plans to get bigger and stronger for his redshirt freshman season.
Kerkvliet has torn his ACL twice in the past year. He had his ACL surgically repaired in September 2018. He returned to the mat for his high school team in early 2019 before tearing his ACL again in March 2019 at the Dmitriev memorial tournament in Russia. Kerkvliet stated he has no plans to repair his ACL at this time because it is not affecting his wrestling
Although both Singletary and Kerkvliet won their weight classes, only Singletary is guaranteed a spot on the U23 World Team. Gable Stevenson from Minnesota could still challenge Kerkvliet for the 125kg spot if he loses his Final X match. Stevenson is wrestling Nick Gwiazdowski for a spot on the Senior World Team on June 8th.
As an added bonus, U23 World Champions will automatically qualify for the Olympic team Trials that will be held In April 2020.
Singletary and Kerkvliet were not the only wrestlers who represented the Scarlet and Gray this past weekend.
Luke Pletcher made it all the way to the finals before losing to Missouri’s Jaydin Eierman. Eierman wrestled against both Logan Stieber and Joey Mckenna for a World team spot at the US Open last year. Pletcher dropped his first match against Eierman 8-5, won the second match 12-11 in a hard-fought battle before losing 9-6 in the third match.
Elijah Cleary and Kaleb Romero both finished in fourth place in their respective weight classes. All in all, it was a very impressive showing for Buckeye Wrestlers this past weekend in Akron.
[You can follow Brandon Dodson on Twitter at @RecruitingBucks.]
