It’s halfway through the 2004 Pacific-10 Conference wrestling tournament, and at this point the tournament is a mirror to how the regular season went for the Ducks.
At the end of the first day of the two-day tournament, Oregon is ninth in team standings, ahead of the only Pac-10 team it beat this year, Portland State.
Leading the way is Boise State, followed closely by Stanford and host Arizona State.
Freshman Joey Lucas entered the tournament in the 125-pound class against Portland State’s Zac Enoch. Lucas lost his match and proceeded to the consolation bracket where he defeated Eric Stevenson of Oregon State before losing to Vic Moreno of Cal Poly.
Jason Harless got off to a good start in the 133-pound bracket, defeating Chris Sanchez of Cal-State Fullerton. In the next round Harless lost to Derek Moore of UC-Davis. Harless moved into the consolation bracket where he faced Tim Norman of Oregon State, advancing into session three against Paul Gross of Stanford.
If Harless wins the match today, the worst he could place would be fourth in his weight class. If he loses to Gross, he must win the next match to place fifth. To finish third and hope for a chance to qualify for the NCAA tournament Harless will need to win his last two matches today.
Johnny Lugo lost in his first match of the 141-pound class against No. 1 seeded Brad Metzler of Stanford. In the next round Lugo lost to Jeremy Mendoza.
The same happened for freshman Cyle Hartzellm who lost his first two matches, ending his season.
No. 4 seeded Joey Bracamonte lost in his first match to five-seed Jeremiah Jarvis of UC-Davis in the 157-pound class.
Bracamonte won his next two matches to put him against No. 2 seed Ben Charrington of Boise State. Bracamonte needs to win his last two matches to place third in the weight class and to earn an opportunity to go to the NCAA tournament.
No. 3 seed Luke Larwin won his first match against Russell Brunson of Boise State, but lost the second on the day. Larwin is in the same position as Harless and Bracamonte, needing two wins to place third.
174-pound junior Chet McBee rebounded from a first match loss to win against Jon Carlisle of Boise State. Much like his teammates, two wins would earn McBee a third place finish.
184-pounder Dustin Fisher lost his first two matches, ending his season. Fisher opened the tournament against No. 1 seed Dan Pitsch of Oregon State.
Senior Jake Leair lost his opening match to K.C. Walsh of Boise State; however, the results of his next match against Stanford’s Larry Ozowara were not posted.
And in the heavyweight division Oregon wrestled little-used Chris Dearman. Dearman lost his opening match, but rallied to win his next two matches placing him, like his teammates, two wins away from the all-important third place finish.
Oregon will continue wrestling today and each Duck wrestler must win their next two matches to be considered for an NCAA tournament invitation.