The Oregon wrestling team gave No.16 Arizona State a scare on Sunday as the Ducks came within eight points of pulling off one of the biggest upsets of the season in Pacific-10 Conference wrestling. The Ducks were without junior Shane Webster in the lineup and would fall 23-15 but did not go quietly as they won five of the 10 matches in the dual, which featured eight nationally ranked wrestlers.
Despite the loss, Oregon (5-7 overall, 2-5 Pac-10) head coach Chuck Kearney was impressed with the way his squad wrestled.
“I feel a lot better about how we wrestled today than how we’ve wrestled in the past few competitions,” Kearney said. “Arizona State is the No. 1 team in the conference and winning half of the matches against them without Shane Webster helps us feel like we can close the gap.”
The dual started in the 125-pound weight class as Joey Lucas of
Oregon faced No. 10 Jeremy Mendoza. Mendoza recorded two take-downs and a reversal en route to
defeating Lucas 8-3.
Oregon struck back in the next two matches as juniors Martin Mitchell (133) and Skyler Woods (141) won by decision over John Espinoza and Curtis Ray, respectively.
“Skyler wrestled as good as he has all year,” Kearney said. “He is eager to get some more matches under his belt and continue to improve.”
The next match featured No. 10 Patrick Williams of Arizona State
(7-6-1, 4-0) as he faced redshirt freshman Nate Gipson. Gipson couldn’t keep up with Williams and lost in a major decision, 19-7. The Sun Devils added to their lead in the next match as No. 15 Brian Smith pinned Stewart Bogart (157) with 51 seconds left in the first round.
The Ducks trailed 13-6 going into the 165-pound match which pitted Oregon’s No. 17 Joey Bracamonte against freshman Patrick Pitsch. The match made for a slugfest as
Bracamonte’s point for advantage time earned him a 3-2 win.
Junior Chet McBee (174) of Oregon filled in for injured Webster and wrestled Rick Renzi. McBee held a 4-3 lead late in the third round and protected it to mark a 5-3 win.
The Ducks trailed the Sun Devils 13-12 going into the 184-pound match. Arizona State pulled away, however, as No. 11 C.B. Dollaway pinned Tony Roland of Oregon with 1:08 left in the first round.
The 197-pound match was the main event of the afternoon as No. 5 Scott Barker of Oregon squared off against No. 7 Ryan Bader. Despite their close rankings, Barker made easy work of Bader and recorded a
7-0 shutout decision.
The Sun Devils led 19-15 and needed only for their heavyweight wrestler, No. 4 Cain Velasquez, not to lose by major decision to Oregon’s Chris Dearmon in order to win.
Velasquez had little trouble etching a 10-2 victory over Dearmon, which sealed the win for Arizona State.
On Friday, Oregon split two duals with Cal State Fullerton and Stanford. The Ducks lost to the Titans 29-12, but edged the Cardinal 22-21.
The Ducks travel to the Sooner State this weekend to tangle with No. 6 Oklahoma Friday and No. 1 Oklahoma State Saturday.
Scott J. Adams is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald