As early as Nov. 12, after dual meet wins over Pacific-10 Conference opponents Stanford and UC Davis, Oregon wrestling head coach Chuck Kearney was looking ahead to the postseason tournaments.
“We want to be in the position to win the Pac-10 Tournament,” he said at the time. “We can do that. It’s a matter of us making developments to get better.
“We want to be the team that shows up to the national tournament as the surprise team. Every year there is a team that kind of comes out of nowhere and has a tournament that everybody talks about, and we want this team to be that one. We want to show up and, for a lack of a better word, overachieve. And with the attitude that the guys are competing and training with, we are on pace to do that.”
With a second-place overall finish at the Pac-10s on March 3 and three individual conference champions (Eugene Harris at 165 pounds, Tony Overstake at 157 and Shaun Williams at 125), the Ducks are on track to “overachieve” at the NCAA Tournament.
Along with the three titles, Oregon wrestlers earned second place from Brian Watson (141), two third-place finishes from Shane Webster (174) and Eric Webb (Hwt.), and a fourth-place finish by Casey Hunt (149). By finishing in the top-four, those wrestlers earned automatic invitations to the NCAA Tournament in Albany, N.Y.
The Ducks’ Jason Harless (133) also earned an invitation to go to Albany by receiving one of the three wildcard bids given out to Pac-10 wrestlers.
The individual titles for Harris, Overstake and Williams were the first for each wrestler. Kearney, who won a Pac-10 championship himself while competing for Oregon, said that winning the title can be one of many important steps in a wrestler’s career.
“Winning the Pac-10 title is another milestone that those three guys had the opportunity to pass, and it is something that can never be taken away from them,” he said. “In one of the premiere wrestling conferences in the nation, they are guys that won their weight class. That is something special.”

A second season
With almost three weeks between the Pac-10 Tournament and nationals, the wrestling team is looking at these final few weeks as its own individual mini-season.
“It’s a nice time to refocus to get ourselves ready, physically and mentally, for the tournament,” Kearney said.
With only eight wrestlers competing in Albany, the coaching staff has kept the rest of the squad working hard almost every day. They participate in the same morning workouts, afternoon practices and weight sessions that the top eight do.
“We want them to go through the preparation process so that hopefully next year when they are qualified or in the starting lineups, they will have this experience under their belts,” Kearney said.

Play hard, study hard
Finals begin next week, but the Ducks leave for Albany on Monday, and will spend the entire week there. With the tournament beginning on Thursday, the team will spend the first few days acclimating to the Eastern time zone, practicing and taking their exams. A representative from academic services will travel with the team to monitor the test-taking environment.