A handful of nagging injuries forced Ohio State coaches to get creative during the first half of the season, now they’re hoping their stars can get healthy.

Tom Ryan believes the Buckeyes can compete for a team trophy at the NCAA championships in March, but only if they’re at full strength, something Ohio State hasn’t been nearly all year.

The Buckeyes have been without starters at six weights for much of the season. Most recently, Ohio State missed the services of 125-pounder Malik Heinselman, 165-pounder Carson Kharchla and 197-pounder Gavin Hoffman for the Big Ten opener against Indiana. 

Meanwhile, 133-pounder Jesse Mendez, 157-pounder Paddy Gallagher and heavyweight Tate Orndorff also have missed time. Mendez and Gallagher missed all of December before returning against the Hoosiers, while Orndorff has been on and off the mat, wrestling through an upper-body injury to mixed results.

“We haven’t had a full lineup,” Ryan said. “Can we put it all together? Can they get healthy and come together as a group?”

Ryan thinks they can and will. 

The Buckeyes host Rutgers on Sunday, and although Ryan expects to tap into the team’s reserves again, he’s eyeing the team’s Jan. 20 at Maryland as the earliest Heinselman, Kharchla and Hoffman could return.

They’d have seven duals left — including a showdown with Penn State on Feb. 3 and a match with Cornell on Feb. 18 — before the Big Ten Championships. 

“We’ve got a bunch of seniors that want to go out doing something big,” Ryan said.

Mendez On The Mend

Ryan believes those seniors will get their wish if youngsters like Mendez keep putting up points.

“We want to get a trophy and Jesse wrestling well is an important piece to that,” Ryan said.

So far, so good.

Although he spent December off the mat, the true freshman has looked like he belongs at 133 — at least for now. He’s been cutting a good amount of weight but is still outpacing and outmuscling his opponents. He’s 7-1 with five bonus-point wins.

“Jesse is bigger, he could move up next year, maybe two weights,” Ryan said. 

That could certainly help the Buckeyes maximize their lineup potential down the road with fellow freshman stud Nic Bouzakis redshirting at 133 this season. Bouzakis helped steady things with Mendez out. He went 4-1 in Mendez’s absence, outscoring opponents 27-14 in that span. 

Bouzakis will stay in redshirt, however. It was mostly his choice and neither coveted recruit made things tough on Ryan and his staff when it came time to decide who would go this year.

“They’re really competitive with each other,” Ryan said. “But the deciding factor was one wants to go badly, and one doesn’t care. One wants to go. Put me in. When someone says ‘put me in’ you put them in, particularly when they’re as good as Jesse.”

Mendez returned for the team’s Jan. 6 dual against Indiana. He majored Henry Porter 20-6 after a week of cutting weight to get back down.

“He didn’t have the energy late that he typically does, but he was up by 14,” Ryan said. “So that’s coming back in his first time down at weight after a long break. We were really happy with the way he looked overall.”

Big Hurt 

It’s been a tough few weeks for Orndorff, but he’s handled losing — and hurting while doing so — like a respectable veteran who still wants to win.

He’s not dropping his head in pity, nor is he making excuses. Even though he’s dealing with multiple nagging ailments. The senior big man started off 6-0 with four pins before taking a medical forfeit out of the Cliff Keen Invitational in early December. 

Since then, Orndorff is 0-4.

“He really loves the sport. He loves the team,” Ryan said. “He’s a mature guy. I think he just sees his life in a really mature way and he’s a leader. He knows that he has to wrestle better for this team to do what we need to do and he’s focused on that.”

That’s been harder to do considering Orndorff lost his best training partner in Nick Feldman, the nation’s top heavyweight recruit a year ago. Ryan confirmed that Feldman suffered a season-ending injury earlier this winter.

“Nick was looking unbelievable in the room and he was getting better by the day,” Ryan said. “That was tough.”

As a result, Buckeyes coaches have rotated a handful of smaller guys in with Orndorff in practice, but nothing quite matches the feel Feldman could offer. They’ve tried to ramp up the pace as Orndorff has been managing his body.

“He’s starting to feel better now so we can turn it up a notch I think,” Ryan said. “It’s going to help him. He’s struggling, but he’s hungry. He’s not down. There’s a big difference.” 

The Veteran

Ethan Smith has been part of the Ohio State program for longer than nearly anyone on the squad and his mileage checks out.

A veteran of 158 collegiate bouts, Smith may actually be the freshest Buckeye at this point of the season and his career. He spent most of his summer interning and planning for what comes after college. He kept up his training, but didn’t wrestle as much as previous offseasons.

It’s showing. Smith has been an anchor for the Buckeyes as starters have come and gone in the lineup. Smith is 13-4 and is 5-2 against Top 25 174-pounders. His 41 team points are third-most behind Kaleb Romero’s 48 and Hoffman’s 51.

“He’s excited about the next couple of months of his senior year. This is it for him so he’s very, very focused right now and I think he’s on the uptrend.”