Sharing is Caring

It's good to share and be a hospitable host, but that's clearly not what Ohio State had in mind. The Buckeyes and Iowa finished the Big Ten tournament both with 120 points leaving the Big Ten championship as a tie. For the first time in the modern scoring era, the title race is even giving Ohio State its first Big Ten title since 1951. It's Iowa's first title since 2010, but we certainly know how the Iowans feel about sharing anything. 

Of course, the most important news is Tommy dominating Kevin in the picks having 8 of the 10 champs pegged correctly. We also survived the weekend without getting arrested or doing anything too regrettable even while walking around Columbus in Michigan Wrestling shirts. 

It was an exciting final round to cap a weekend of great wrestling. The team score went back and forth and then after 184 it left at 120 points a piece. Kyle Snyder and Nathan Burak both fell in their matches at 197 creating a lot more Northwestern fans in Columbus to root on McMullan against Bobby Telford at 285. After giving up a takedown early in the 2nd, the 3-time All-American finished 2 takedowns to give him enough points to win his title assuring the tie. 

Nathan Tomasello (at 125) was one of two Buckeyes to win titles in front of the home crowd. He had a very impressive tournament with a semi-final win over 2-time National Champ, Delgado, and then knocked off Gilman in the finals. 

Chris Dardanes (Minnesota) at 133 continues his undefeated season with a dominant win over Ryan Taylor (Wisconsin). While many know Logan Stieber (Ohio State), who tech'd Dziewa in the next match, will win all the individual awards this year it's very hard to find someone who has had a better season so far than Dardanes. This was the deepest weight class in the conference with 12 NCAA bids up for grabs, but the Gopher keeps winning. 

Jason Tsirtsis (Northwestern) avenged his only loss of the season by beating Sorensen from Iowa. Tsirtsis looks to repeat as national champ in this sophomore season trying to become a rare 4-timer. 

Speaking of potential 4-timers, Isiah Martinez (Illinois) continues a magical undefeated freshman campaign with a thrilling 12-5 win over Dylan Ness (Minnesota). Martinez kept winning the scrambles with the powerful and unpredictable Ness. The freshman is a point scoring machine and it is not too early to wonder if he can go after Cael Sanderson in the record books. 

Isaac Jordan (Wisconsin) handed his cousin Bo Jordan (Ohio State) his first loss in college with a 3-2 win with the riding time point being the difference.

Robert Kokesh (Nebraksa) at 174 continues his undefeated run on the season coming out of the "big 4" fray on top to defend his Big Ten title. Kokesh, who enters this postseason much healthier than last year, has appeared to separate himself from the other three top ranked guys this weekend. He rode well and even scored a few takedowns against Matt Brown (Penn State) in the finals. 

At 184, Dominic Abounader (Michigan) defeated Pfarr (Minnesota) 7-6 to take the most wide open weight class of the weekend. After an injury delayed the start of the season for the Wolverine he is on a roll heading in to the NCAA's winning 10 of his last 11 before the tournament. 

At 197, former overall #1 recruit from four years ago Morgan McIntosh (Penn State) avenged an earlier 6-1 loss to this year's #1 recruit Kyle Snyder (Ohio State). This time it was 4-1 for the Nitany Lion who really controlled the pace of the match. 

The weekend was a lot of fun since these weights are so close together. The team race could have changed in a lot of spots with just a couple wins here and there. There are a lot of discussions and predictions to make in the next ten days, but really nobody knows how this will play out and I think it makes this year one of the most exciting seasons in recent memory. 

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/big10/sports/m-wrestl/auto_pdf/2014-15/misc_non_event/BigTenChampsCompleteResults.pdf

1. Iowa 120.0
1. Ohio State 120.0
3. Minnesota 108.0
4. Michigan 102.5
5. Penn State 96.5
6. Illinois 96.0
7. Nebraska 85.5
8. Wisconsin 73.0
9. Northwestern 72.0
10. Purdue 37.5
11. Rutgers 20.5
12. Indiana 16.0
13. Michigan State 12.5
14. Maryland 10.5