Adam Amato Emerald
Oregon’s Eric Webb (right) and the wrestling team head to Corvallis for the Pac-10 Tournament.
The women’s basketball team isn’t the only Oregon team to be competing in a Pacific-10 Conference Tournament this weekend.
Wrestling’s version of the Pac-10 championships begins Saturday at the Gill Coliseum in Corvallis at 11 a.m.
Oregon head coach Chuck Kearney and his team, which is 9-7 overall and 5-4 in the Pac-10 this year, are approaching the weekend with confidence and hope to continue on to the NCAA Tournament in Albany, N.Y.
“We look at the conference tournament as an extension of the national tournament,” Kearney said. “If you don’t do well at the conference, you don’t go to the nationals. The better you do (in the conference tournament), you are on a positive roll and have an opportunity to get seeded at nationals.”
The Ducks, who are ranked No. 23 in the country, won four of their last five dual meets, including an 18-14 win over Oregon State on Feb. 13. Other Pac-10 teams that hold a top-25 slot are the No. 25 Beavers and the No. 13 Arizona State Sun Devils.
The fifth and final Pac-10 poll appeared on Feb. 5 with Arizona State holding the top spot as it did throughout the season. Oregon State was No. 2 followed by No. 3 Boise State, No. 4 Oregon, No. 5 Cal Poly, No. 6 UC Davis, No. 7 Stanford, No. 8 Cal State Bakersfield, No. 9 Portland State and No. 10 Cal State Fullerton.
The Sun Devils finished the regular season with a 6-0 record against Pac-10 opponents, so they may be difficult to beat. Oregon was the last team to lose to the tournament favorite, a 30-11 decision on Feb. 3. Since then, Arizona State has lost three meets to No. 5 Iowa State, No. 24 Fresno State (whom Oregon defeated earlier this season) and No. 6 Oklahoma. Kearney is aware of the unpredictability of tournaments.
“At tournament time, anything can happen,” he said. “Different people respond differently to that sudden-death pressure, and I think that we have a lot of guys on our team that will rise to the occasion.”
The seedings for the tournament will be decided on Friday afternoon during a meeting of the Pac-10 coaches, but it is likely that at least six of Oregon’s starting 10 wrestlers will be ranked in the top four of the tournament brackets in their respective weight classes.
The Ducks best shot at a conference title comes with senior Eugene Harris in the 165-pound weight class. Harris placed fourth at last year’s tournament at 157 pounds and compiled a 26-3 overall record (13-2 Pac-10) this season. He is currently ranked No. 4 in the country, while UC Davis’ Burt Pierson is ranked No. 11.
No. 10 Shaun Williams is one of three ranked wrestlers in the 125-pound weight class and will probably be seeded second in the tournament. Jason Harless (133-pounds) and Tony Overstake (157) will also likely be seeded second in their classes, and 149-pounder Casey Hunt is expected to receive a No. 3 seed, as is heavyweight Eric Webb.
Redshirt freshman Shane Webster (174) has wrestled very well for Oregon this year and has a good shot at advancing in the tournament.
“Webster just keeps getting better and has lost close matches to the (probable) top two seeds in the tournament,” Kearney said speaking of Oregon State’s No. 13 Nathan Coy and Cal Poly’s No. 14 Steve Strange. “I know for sure that those two guys don’t want to meet him early in the tournament. He is the kind of guy who can pull off upsets.”
If the Oregon wrestlers can compete well on an individual basis, the team may give Arizona State a run for the conference title.
“We are in a position that if the individuals can do their jobs, we can sneak up and be a player in it,” Kearney said. “There are four or five teams that are fairly close, which makes it great for a team like ourselves who are a little bit of a dark horse to sneak in there and maybe win the whole thing.”
The top four finishers in the conference tournament are invited to nationals, which will be held March 21-23.
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