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“He didn’t really follow the gameplan he usually does,” said Bobcat head coach Joel Greenlee about Willis’ fifth and final match of the competition. “He went out there and got taken down right away. He just looked sluggish and got caught standing around on his feet but he got a reversal at the end of the first period to make it 2-2.”

In the second period, according to Greenlee, Willis started on top but allowed an escape and then a takedown to make it 5-2 heading into the final session.

“In the third period, Ed chose down and Robertson just rode the snot out of him,” said Greenlee. “(Robertson) got some cheap back points and then Ed got a reversal at the end but it was too little, too late.”

Willis had won three of his four matches on Wednesday to advance to the second and final day of the prestigious event. Two other Bobcat seniors, Jon Spires (Lancaster) and Joel Weimer (Waynesville), suffered injuries and had to withdraw from the competition in Wednesday’s opening session.

Willis began the first day with a 5-2 decision over Purdue’s Charles Charlesgary at 174 pounds. He was then dropped to the consolation bracket following a 4-3 loss to sixth-seeded Nick Passalano of Iowa State. In the evening session, Willis recorded a 9-2 win over Embry-Riddle’s David Rivera and a 4-3 decision over Iowa’s Luke Lofthouse.

Spires posted the Bobcats’ most impressive win during the opening session with a 2-0 decision over seventh-seeded DeWitt Driscoll of Penn State. The 141-pounder then suffered a concussion during his 15-2 loss to 10th-seeded Michael Simpson of Indiana and had to medical forfeit out of the tournament.

Weimer injured his ankle towards the end of his opening match, a 6-2 loss to fifth-seeded Scott Barker of Oregon, forcing him to withdraw from the 197-pound bracket.

“Joel wrestled a kid from Oregon who was an NCAA runner-up and was leading him by a point,” said Greenlee. “But then he took a shot and hurt his ankle. They thought he broke it there for a while but it turned out to be just sprained.”

Without three-time All-American Jake Percival (Elyria), who is still recovering from a rib injury, the Bobcats planned to enter eight wrestlers in the tournament but their 165-pounder, Tony DeAnna (Westlake), was unable to compete due to sickness. The other Ohio grapplers in action on Wednesday were Caleb Metcalf (Waterville) at 125 pounds, Brian Cesear (Amerst) at 184 and heavyweights Marcus Adelman (Allianca) and Jeremiah Beltran (Olathe, Kan.).

Metcalf, a redshirt freshman, lost to Iowa’s Matt Morkel 5-3 in the opening round and suffered a 4-3 defeat to sixth-seeded Luke Smith of Central Michigan in the consolation bracket.

Cesear, meanwhile, opened with a 9-4 loss to ninth-seeded Ed Magrys of Eastern Michigan but bounced back with a 10-5 decision over Northwestern’s Joseph Gulotta. The sophomore then got pinned by seventh-seeded Josh Glenn of American University in his evening-session match.

In the heavyweight bracket, Adelman won his first two matches in decisive fashion by beating Eastern Michigan’s Charlie Walker 11-2 and Penn State’ Josh Walker 11-5. Adelman then lost a 7-2 decision to third-seeded Matt Fields of Iowa before suffering a 3-2 consolation-bracket loss in the evening to Cleveland State’s Joe Dennis.

“Adelman wrestled pretty well but the thing he needs to realize is that he just needs to wrestle harder,” said Greenlee about the promising sophomore. “He really went after the guy in the last minute but the first five minutes he let the guy hang around. If he would have wrestled the first five minutes like he did the last minute, he would have beat the guy by five or six points.”

Ohio’s other heavyweight, Jeremiah Beltran, opened with a 3-2 loss to Ohio State’s Kirk Nail and then defeated Eastern Michigan Charlie Walker 9-1 before being bounced from the tournament by a 3-1 loss to fourth-seeded Scott Coleman of Iowa State.

“First and foremost, we need to get healthy,” said Greenlee about his team’s preparation for the next competition. “We just need to go out there and put together a whole match. We have some guys who look great during parts of their matches but they either started off the match poorly or finished the match poorly.”

The Bobcat will not be in action again until the Buckeye Duals in Columbus on Saturday, Jan. 8. In that event, Ohio is scheduled for dual meets with Clarion at 11 a.m., Bloomsburg at 2:30 p.m. and UNC-Greensboro at 4:15 p.m.

“There will be 14 different teams there,” said Greenlee about the event hosted by Ohio State at St. John Arena. “The three we go against are pretty tough schools so we need to be there ready to wrestle. It will be a great event with a lot of fans so hopefully our team can feed off that a little bit.”