Lovejoy's pin leads No. 18 Wrestling to 21-17 victory over No. 30 Mount Union in battle of OAC unbeatens
By Tim Glon
ADA -- Sophomore Cody Lovejoy posted a second-period pin in the final bout of the night to help No. 18-ranked Ohio Northern to a 21-17 victory over No. 30-ranked Mount Union in a battle of Ohio Athletic Conference wrestling unbeatens Tuesday evening at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears improve to 14-2 and remain undefeated and in first place in the OAC at 3-0, while the Purple Raiders fall to 6-3, 2-1.
Lovejoy got his team-best 16th pin of the season in 3:52 in the heavyweight class as ONU rallied from a 17-12 deficit to win its 13th consecutive OAC regular season dual match.
He was nearly pinned in the first period and trailed 5-0 early, but rallied with a reversal to pull within 5-2 after the first period. On top entering the second, he turned Nick Terifaj and got the pin with 1:09 left in the period.
Trailing 14-6, senior defending national champion, three-time All-American and No. 1-ranked Kyle Kwiat posted a pin in 2:43 in the 174-pound weight class to pull ONU within 14-12.
Kwiat is now a team-best 28-3 on the season.
Junior Jerry Pasquale got ONU off to a quick start, winning by a 12-7 decision at 125 pounds to improve to 21-7 on the season.
After MtU won major decisions at 133 and 141 to take an 8-3 lead, sophomore J.P. Hoopes won by a 7-1 decision at 149 to pull ONU within 8-6.
With the victory, Hoopes is now 11-4 on the campaign.
"Cody did a great job of staying with it," ONU head coach Ron Beaschler said. "He kept battling, kept wrestling and it paid off. I thought Kwiat and Hoopes wrestled with a lot of heart. This was a big win for us in the OAC."
At 197, junior Michael Pawlitz jumped out to a quick lead and held on for a 7-6 win, setting up Lovejoy's heroics. Pawlitz improves to 24-5 on the year.
The Polar Bears will return to action Friday and Saturday at the Wheaton (Ill.) Invitational.
#18 Ohio Northern 21, #30 Mount Union 17
125 -- Jerry Pasquale (ONU) dec. Brad Kress, 12-7
133 -- Jeremy Border (MtU) maj. dec. Jeremy Jones, 10-2
141 -- #4 Bryant Roby (MtU) maj. dec. Cody Harting, 16-5
149 -- J.P. Hoopes (ONU) dec. Tyler Johnston, 7-1
157 -- Jon Garrison (MtU) dec. Kyle Brezovec, 4-0
165 -- Jeremy Regula (MtU) dec. Tyler Gargano, 3-1
174 -- #1 Kyle Kwiat (ONU) pinned Brogan Endres, 2:43
184 -- Brian Deming (MtU) dec. Kyle Raber, 6-4
197 -- Michael Pawlitz (ONU) dec. Nick Rajcsak, 7-6
285 -- Cody Lovejoy (ONU) pinned Nick Terifaj, 3:52
JV Matches
141 -- Shaun Lee (ONU) pinned Jordan Judy, 6:15
149 -- Ben Kazimir (MtU) dec. Pat Piszker, 4-1
157 -- Lambert McIlrath (MtU) dec. Colt Lovejoy, 7-5
285 -- Lucas Dies (MtU) dec. Kody Bellamy, 9-2
