It took the Buffalo Bulls wrestling team nearly two years, but after nine consecutive Mid-American Conference losses the Bulls finally found themselves on the winning side of the scoreboard on Saturday. Buffalo took down the Ohio Bobcats, 24-9, remaining unbeaten in dual-meets at Alumni Arena.
"I'm happy we had the win today," said senior 184-pounder Mickey Moran. "We haven't had a MAC win in awhile and it feels pretty good to secure one."
Moran continued a recent hot streak by beating Erik Schuth in the opening bout, 4-1. The two-takedown victory marks Moran's 11th consecutive win and 28th of the season. Moran entered the weekend tied for eighth in the country in victories of all grapplers in Division I.
"Mickey (Moran)'s done a real good job this year and he's missed a tournament because he was ill so he could have three, four or five more wins on top of (his season total)," said Buffalo head coach Jim Beichner. "He's doing a great job for us. He started out doing what we need to do: win."
The Bulls (8-4-1, 0-2 MAC) picked up wins in the first four bouts against Ohio (4-12, 0-3 MAC) to go ahead 15-0. Freshman 197-pounder Jimmy Hamel and senior 285-pounder Jeff Parker each posted wins by decision before the string of victories was capped off by a pin-fall win by sophomore 125-pounder Dan Bishop over Heath Allen just 1:43 into the first period.
"That pin was big for us because if we lost anyone of those swing matches, we would still pull out the win with his fall," Beichner said.
Ohio came back to win three of the next four matches and trim Buffalo's lead down to nine. The Bobcat's Quentin Keyes beat junior Joe Wilson 8-2 in the 133 pound bout while Germane Lindsey slipped pass sophomore 149-pounder Andrew Stella, 4-3. Ohio was also boosted by 157-pounder Clay Tucker's 4-1 decision over senior John Cummings. The Bulls' sole win in this span was by senior 149-pounder Pat Lloyd who beat Kevin Christensen, 2-0.
Buffalo responded by taking the final two matches, solidifying its team win as 165-pounder Scott Rendos won a tight 3-2 decision over Kent Smith and 174 pound senior Mike Ragusa posted a 7-5 victory against Knapp.
"Scott (Rendos) is real tough and he got the riding time point for it to be our last match to secure," Beichner said.
In their next match, the Bulls will put their undefeated home dual-meet record on the line against the nation's No. 5 ranked Central Michigan Chippewas on Saturday, Feb. 2 at Alumni Arena. The two teams will hit the mats at 1:00 p.m.
"Those (match-ups versus CMU) are out opportunities to maybe get some of our guys nationally noticed and ranked and we look forward to that opportunity," Beichner said.