The Oregon wrestling team won three of its five dual matches Saturday at the University of Indiana’s Hoosier Duals in Bloomington, Ind.
Top performers for the Ducks included senior heavyweight Chris Dearmon and transfer Brysen French, who both won four of their five matches.
“It was a good day of wrestling for us and we saw some very positive efforts,” said coach Chuck Kearney in an Oregon release. “Chris wrestled well after missing last week’s tournament and French wrestled well in his first varsity action against some very good competition.”
The Ducks started the day of duals by defeating the Bucknell Bisons 23-19, with Dearmon pinning George Hinson in 2:53 in the heavyweight class and sophomore Ronnie Lee winning by technical fall over Shane Riccio at 174 pounds.
The Ducks lost their next match 35-8 to host Indiana and recorded just two victories in the match, though both were major decisions. Senior Justin Pearch defeated Nick Walpole 17-8 at 141 pounds and Dearmon picked up his second win of the day defeating Justin Kuhn 15-6.
Oregon bounced back to win its third match convincingly, 27-10, over Cumberland University, a liberal arts college in Lebanon, Tenn. Sophomore Beau Malia pinned Delrico Choates in 3:52 at 125 pounds, and major decisions were recorded by Lee, Kyle Bounds and Bryan Cantrell.
Oregon then lost its closest match of the day to Ohio University, 19-18. Both teams won five matches, including one fall each, but the deciding factor in the match was a major decision scored by Ohio’s Jacob Ison over Bounds at 165 pounds.
“We sort of snatched defeat from the jaws of victory during the Ohio match,” said Kearney. “We had many chances to win that match, but we made some mistakes in aggressiveness and that cost us.”
The day concluded with a win over Appalachian State, 31-10. Dearmon and French recorded major decisions to pick up their fourth wins of the day, and Malia and Pearch won their matches by pin.
Next up for Oregon is a dual meet at Oregon State on Dec. 8. at 7 p.m.
-Kevin Hudson