The Ducks walked into this weekend unsure and anxious to find out how good they are this season. They came away knowing they belong among the national powerhouses after beating Boise State, 17-16, in Boise for the first time in a decade Friday and challenging No. 13 Arizona State, 23-21, Sunday.
“We need to learn who to wrestle in a single-match meet format,” Oregon coach Chuck
Kearney said. “Our guys haven’t performed too well in those settings.” Kearney is enthused after his team delivered in a single-match meet setting, and its first back-to-back wins over the Broncos since the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons.
The Ducks stepped up to beat Boise State, moving into a conference tie at 2-2 with the Broncos after Friday’s meet. Ryan Dunn, Beau Malia and Skyler Woods started the meet with consecutive wins.
Dunn, Oregon’s 125-pound redshirt freshman, started the meet off with a comeback decision over Boise State’s Cory Fish, 9-8. Malia filled in for the injured Justin Pearch at
133 pounds. Pearch was hyped to wrestle Pacific-10 Conference rival and two-time defending Pac-10 Champion Scott Jorgensen. Pearch’s “goals of becoming a national champion” have been derailed for a week because neither of the 133-pound wrestlers saw action this weekend.
Woods took a one-point advantage into his 16th win of the season and gave the Ducks a
9-0 lead. Woods finished the weekend strong and stretched his season record to 17-8 overall and 11-6 in the Pac-10.
Sixth-ranked Joey Bracamonte’s return to the mat was strong as he outlasted Boise State’s Johnny Nunez. The match was a warmup for Bracamonte, who wrestled Arizona State’s No. 12 Patrick Pitsch two days later. Bracamonte has been hampered with an injured knee for the past month and this weekend’s action was a strong measure of his abilities.
Bracamonte slightly edged out Pitsch, 7-6, and put pressure on Arizona St. Bracamonte’s success helped the Ducks finish their hardest weekend of the season. He also proved his knee is ready to go as the Ducks prepare for the remainder of the Pac-10 season.
Oregon’s 165-pound All-American said this weekend would show how good this team was, and he showed he would be a key to that success with his undefeated record.
The Ducks received another dominant match from their untouchable senior Shane Webster. He has compiled a record of 26-1 on the season and has breezed through all of his competition, and this weekend was no exception.
Webster has the confidence of the coaching staff and is thought of as one of the “toughest guys to wrestle” in the Pac-10, according to Kearney.
The 184-pound defending Pac-10 Champion is primed and ready for another championship, and has shown it with his dominate record. Webster beat Boise State’s K.C. Walsh 8-2 and all but solidified the Ducks win of the Broncos with an 18-10 lead.
Webster was assessed a penalty and one point was taken away because of unsportsmanlike conduct. This lead to the 17-16 final score on Friday.
On Sunday, No. 11 Webster was matched up against Arizona State’s No. 8 C.B. Dollaway. This was the second top-15 matchup of the meet and resulted in a dominate 14-4 win by Webster. It was his second win over a top-10 opponent this season as Webster defeated Cal Poly’s No. 7 Ryan Halsey on Jan. 4.
The Ducks took a 21-18 lead into the final match against the defending Pac-10 champions. Chris Dearmon lost by technical fall to No. 4 Cain Velasquez 19-3. The fall gave the Sun Devils a 23-21 victory.
The Ducks are excited to be back wrestling in Eugene. The team will take the positives from an exciting weekend and look to push their 2-3 conference record above .500 on the season.
Oregon will host Cal-State Bakersfield at 2 p.m. on Jan. 27. The Ducks double up by hosting Fresno State at 7 p.m. that evening.