Oregon wrestling lost dual meets to Boise State and Arizona State during the weekend, despite posting early leads in both meets.
The Ducks (6-9, 1-5 Pacific-10 Conference) got out to a 10-3 lead Saturday against Boise State (6-2, 2-1 Pac-10) on decisions by sophomore Ryan Dunn and senior Justin Pearch, and a major decision by sophomore Jeremy McLaughlin at 149 pounds, 12-4 over Boise State’s Cam Jones.
Oregon forfeited its match at 174 pounds because of a broken leg freshman Ronnie Lee suffered at practice almost two weeks ago. Initial x-rays showed no break, coach Chuck Kearney said, and Lee wrestled through the pain in Oklahoma. Lee went 0-3 on the trip and was still experiencing pain in the leg when he returned to Eugene, prompting a second x-ray that revealed the leg was broken. Kearney said that he doesn’t think that wrestling in Oklahoma worsened the injury but that the week of recovery time that Lee lost by wrestling on it could effect the time frame for his return, which Kearney still hopes will be in time for the Pac-10 Tournament Feb. 24-25 in Bakersfield, Calif.
Several of the matches were close against Boise State. Brysen French lost his match at 184 pounds in overtime and Chris Dearmon lost his match at heavyweight in triple overtime, but the Ducks couldn’t score again, losing the dual 27-10.
Oregon shot out to a 9-0 lead Sunday against Arizona State (6-10, 2-2 Pac-10) on decisions by senior Joey Lucas, Pearch and McLaughlin. Instead of forfeiting the 174-pound match to the Sun Devils, Kearney decided to insert Zach Frazier, a true freshman from Gresham, at 157 pounds and bump freshmen Kyle Bounds and Jake McCoy up a weight class to fill out the lineup. The decision almost paid off for Kearney, with Frazier giving up only 4 points in winning a 14-4 major decision to the country’s fifth-ranked 157-pounder, Brian Stith.
“I came into today ready to wrestle and when I found out I was wrestling at 157 I got even more excited to have the opportunity to prove myself and step up against that kind of wrestler,” Frazier said.
Neither Bounds nor McCoy could win his match to complete Kearney’s strategy and the Ducks didn’t score again until Chris Dearmon’s second-round pin of Arizona State’s Quinton Pruett, long after the dual’s outcome had been decided. Ryan Dunn dropped his first home match of the season to finish the day’s action with Arizona State winning 27-14.
“Our effort was fantastic,” Kearney said. “I was really pleased with how hard the kids wrestled.”
Oregon goes on the road this week, wrestling dual meets against UC-Davis and Stanford Friday. They return to McArthur Court Friday, Feb. 9 to wrestle Oregon State in their final home meet of the season.