It was a tough night on Friday for the Flashes wrestling team as they fell to their arch rival Ohio University, 24-12, in Athens, knocking the Flashes record to 6-11 on the season. 

The Flashes started off hot with a victory in the second match by redshirt freshman Spencer Berthold by pinning Zack Parker with 1:37 left on the clock in the first period.

After that however, it all went down hill. The Bobcats took six straight from the Flashes with of the Bobcats’ victories coming in convincing fashion.

Tim Rooney wrestled his first duel weighing in at 133 pounds, and he fell to Mario Guillen by major decision by outscored Rooney 10-1. 

“Tim’s not wrestling his best right now like he had at the beginning of the year, and we need to figure out how to get him out of that trend,” coach JimAndrassy said of Rooney’s recent slump.

Sophomore Cory Simpson fell to Cam Kelly by technical foul 18-3.

Possible the best duel of the night occurred between redshirt freshmanKody Komara for the Flashes and Alec Hagan of the Bobcats. They were tied at one with a minute left in the third period when Komara took down Hagan for a two point advantage.

Then, Hagan escaped a take down attempt by Komara and managed to pull off a take-down move of his own to gain three points within the final seconds, giving the Bobcats a 18-6 lead at that point. During the first period of the duel, the Bobcats head coach Joel Greenlee challenged whether or not Hagan was taken down by Komara. The call stood, which was a point of contention with Andrassy.

“I was arguing the fact that the challenge was way late,” Andrassy said. “You only have a few seconds of time to challenge, and I thought he threw it too late.”

In the eighth duel of the night, Kent State senior Isaac Bast was defeated in overtime by true freshman Cody Yinger by takedown in a defensive duel 3-1. This win sealed the victory for the Bobcats.

When asked about Komara’s and Bast’s losses, Andrassy said they just got to learn how to win along with the rest of the team.

“If we win those two duels, we win the match just so we are all on the same page here,” Andrassy said. “We were in the exact same situation in Lock Haven. We had two matches that we should have won, and we lost. We have had five losses in the last 30 matches that we have wrestled that we were expected to win, and we lose. That’s been the difference in duels.”

The last two duels Kent State won for pride sakes. Dylan Barrieo defeated Arsen Ashughyen by a stall point, and Andrew McNally improved his record to 25-9 this season after he knocked off Hunter Yeargan 3-2. When asked about how fun it is to watch Andrew McNally wrestle. Andrassy could not hold back.

“He’s bringing energy every night, and he’s going out there with confidence,” Andrassy said. “He’s putting the work in and doing all the right things. At the end of the day, it’s showing that what he’s doing is the right stuff.”

Kent State has another opportunity to get a win when they head home for their next duel on Saturday vs Buffalo at the MAC Center at 1 p.m.

Brandon Lewis is a sports reporter. Contact him at [email protected].