Some days you can’t go wrong, and others, nothing goes right.
The Oregon wrestling team was somewhere in between Monday as it survived horribly bad luck off the mat and responded with inspired wrestling on it, to finish in fourth place at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships at McArthur Court.
“Considering the adversity the guys went through from an hour before the match until tonight, we wrestled pretty well,” Oregon head coach Chuck Kearney said. “The guys stepped it up.”
After losing their top wrestler before the match and suffering numerous injuries throughout the match, the Ducks kept themselves in the four-team battle for first place.
Sophomore Eric Webb withdrew from the tournament after sustaining his third concussion of the season. Junior Eugene Harris and sophomore Brian Watson both sat out their final matches of the tournament because of severe knee injuries. Sophomore Tony Overstake wrestled through the entire tournament despite yet another knee injury.
“When we lost Webb before the match, we all just figured ‘We gotta step it up and wrestle even harder to pick up the slack,’” Overstake said. “Considering what we went through, we did pretty well. Webb would have picked up a couple more points and possibly even have won it for us.”
After three rounds of play, Oregon found itself 11 points behind eventual winner Arizona State, five behind second-place Boise State and only one behind third-place Oregon State. With the Sun Devils running away with the competition, the Ducks knew they still had a legitimate shot at second coming into the championship finals.
Watson’s injury default, coupled with four Boise State and Oregon State finals victories, put the Ducks out of the hunt. Oregon finished fourth in the end, 20 behind Arizona State.
There is a silver lining to the story. The Ducks qualified seven wrestlers to the NCAA Tournament, the most since the 1980-81 season. Their fourth-place finish in the conference is the highest since 1998.
Senior Doug Lee won his third straight Pac-10 title at 184 pounds and makes his fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament. Lee defeated Portland State’s Jeremy Wilson 6-4 in the finals as Oregon’s only conference champion.
“It’s the greatest to have done it at home,” Lee said. “All of the people who have supported me over the years were here. That makes it all that much better.”

Fellow senior Chael Sonnen cruised through the first three rounds of the 197-pound bracket, earning two major decisions and a technical fall, only to be stopped short of a Pac-10 title.
Sonnen faced arch-rival Rusty Cook of Boise State in the finals in a much-anticipated match. Sonnen stormed out to a 5-0 lead, but squandered it throughout the last two periods to fall, 12-6.
Watson reached the 133-pound finals with two big decisions, only to injure his knee in the process.
“It sucks,” Watson said. “I was feeling better than I ever had. I wanted the title though. That’s what you work all year for. It’s still nice to go [to the NCAAs] though.”
Also earning NCAA bids were junior Shaun Williams, Overstake and Harris. Overstake was hobbled in his final three matches by a torn meniscus in his right knee, but still managed to place fourth at 149 pounds. Harris overcame a lateral collateral ligament injury to place fourth at 157 pounds and will make his second straight NCAA appearance.
An exhausted Williams placed fourth at 125 pounds, which featured five nationally ranked wrestlers.
Part of the reason why Oregon was able to stay in the hunt as long as it did was because of two unexpected placers.
True freshman Luke Larwin, who had won only six matches coming into the tournament, earned key upsets to place fourth at 165 pounds and qualify for the NCAA Tournament. After being knocked out in the first round, Larwin responded with three straight consolation wins, including an upset over top seed Jed Pennell in the consolation semifinals.
“Luke is wrestling the best of his life,” Kearney said. “For him to come into the conference tournament prepared emotionally and physically like he was is phenomenal.”
Sophomore Casey Hunt also surprised many at 141 pounds. Hunt earned a pin over Stanford’s Levi Weikel-Magden in his last match to place fifth.
“We only ask our wrestlers to show up emotionally and mentally, and tonight they did that,” Kearney said. “I am pleased with what they did.”
The seven NCAA qualifiers will have three weeks to heal before the NCAA Championships in Iowa City, Iowa, on March 15-17.