Falling below .500 is not what the Ducks hoped for coming out of their road trip to
California, but tough losses to Stanford (22-15) and UC Davis (21-19) capped a weekend that put pressure on Oregon to bounce back against Oregon State Friday.
In Palo Alto, Calif., Oregon lost to Stanford for the fourth time in school history. The Ducks have traditionally dominated the annual matchup with the Cardinal, and still hold a 30-4 record against Stanford. Two of Stanford’s four wins have come in the past three years.
Contributing to the loss was a monumental upset by Stanford’s Ray Blake, who beat Oregon’s 165-pound All-American Joey Bracamonte 8-6 in double overtime. The loss ended Bracamonte’s perfect season. The nationally-ranked Duck controlled the match 6-2 going into the third and final period. The Cardinal senior co-captain managed to score an escape and a takedown to inch closer to eclipsing Bracamonte. As time expired, the Pacific-10 Champion’s riding time ticked to 59 seconds, resulting in a penalty point for Blake.
The first overtime was a deadlock with neither wrestler able to score. In the second overtime Blake scored a decisive takedown with eight ticks remaining on the clock to and pulled out the 8-6 victory.
Bracamonte wrestled another close match later in the day against UC Davis’ Jon Clark, winning 6-4. The sixth-ranked Bracamonte is now 17-1 after his weekend in California, and will look to avenge his loss in the Pac-10 tournament at the end of this month.
Oregon’s 125-pound redshirt freshman Ryan Dunn continued to rack up quality wins. Against Stanford, Dunn wrestled a weight class up and dominated the match 11-6. Wrestling in his usual weight class at UC Davis, Dunn scored a major decision for the Ducks against Marcos Orozco. Dunn has taken the challenge of wrestling both 125 and 133 pounds in the absence of Justin Pearch.
Pearch has been struggling with a knee injury, while underweight redshirt freshmen Dunn and Beau Malia try to fill the Ducks’ void.
Malia, the other 125-pounder, struggled to find a rhythm against Stanford’s 10th-ranked Tanner Gardner.
Skyler Woods pulled off a split Friday. The 141-pounder won a close match at Stanford against Juston Johnson, 4-3.
At UC Davis, Woods was unable to sufficiently challenge the seventh-ranked Derek Moore. The Duck senior lost 12-1 in a major decision.
The Ducks struggled at 149 and 157 pounds, unable to capture a win in either weight class for both meets. The losses were partially due to the absence of Cyle Hartzell at 157 pounds.
Against Stanford, Hartzell’s replacement, Jeremy McLaughlin, was pinned with 49 seconds left in the first period. The 149-pound McLaughlin moved up a weight class and struggled to compete against the heavier opponents.
Shane Webster continued his perfect Pac-10 season by winning at Stanford and UC Davis. The defending Pac-10 Champion has carried the Ducks much of the season, and continues to dominate his opponents.
Chris Dearmon lost a close match against Stanford, 7-5. Later that day he pulled off a 10-4 win against UC Davis’ Evan Hendrix.
The Ducks are now 4-5 in the Pac-10. They have a matchup against Oregon State this Friday at McArthur Court at 7 p.m. Oregon will look to even the season series and break the Beavers’ five-match Civil War winning streak.