All but two of Oregon’s 10 starting wrestlers have extended their season for another two and a half weeks.
Seven Ducks finished in the top-four at the Pacific-10 Conference championship tournament and one earned a wild card selection to advance to the NCAA Tournament in Albany, N.Y., which begins March 21.
Shaun Williams, Tony Overstake and Eugene Harris all wrestled their way through the conference tournament bracket to come away with individual conference titles in their respective weight classes. As a team, Oregon finished second with 115.5 points, behind Boise State’s 123.
“We wanted to win it, and we wrestled hard,” head coach Chuck Kearney said. “We just didn’t score any bonus points, and that’s what it came down to. But the guys went after it, and now they know what it will take to win a championship.”
Harris, seeded No. 1 in the 165-pound weight class, rolled by his first round opponent, Nathan Ploehn of Boise State 16-7, but had some difficulty with his semifinal match against Nick Frost of Arizona State. When Frost and Harris last met Feb. 3, Harris came away with a 3-1 victory. Saturday’s match was even closer with Harris winning 3-2, which placed him in the final round match against Burt Pierson of UC Davis.
One of Harris’ three losses this season came against Pierson in a 2-1 double overtime decision Nov. 10. Once again, the two battled each other in low scoring match, but the Oregon senior was able to better Pierson for a 3-2 decision.
Overstake was a No. 2 seed in the tournament at 157 pounds and his closest match was a 10-7 victory in the final championship round against UC Davis’ Jeremiah Jarvis. In his semi-final round match, Overstake faced No. 3 seed Levi Weikel-Magden from Stanford and cruised to a 13-4 victory.
Williams, a senior at 125 pounds, was seeded No. 3 in the tournament and had to come up with two victories over tough opponents in order to win the title. Williams cruised through his first two matches winning 10-2 and 18-5, which placed him in the semi-final match against Arizona State’s Mike Simpson. Simpson was seeded No. 2 and ranked No. 13 in the country, but Williams won by a score of 15-4, placing him in the finals against No. 1 seed and defending Pac-10 champion Ben VomBaur.
In a previous meeting this season, VomBaur defeated Williams 9-2, but in Sunday’s matchup, Williams made the most of his final conference match with an 8-4 victory.
Brian Watson (141) also advanced to the championship match but lost an 11-1 decision to Eric Larkin of Arizona State, who was seeded No. 1 and ranked No. 6. In his first round match, Watson defeated Cal Poly’s Cedric Haymon, the No. 2 seed.
In his first Pac-10 Tournament, redshirt freshman Shane Webster (174) finished in third place. After losing his first match to Cal Poly’s Steve Strange, who would finish in second place, Webster won three consecutive matches, including a 13-4 victory over No. 3 seed Pat Owens from Boise State in the third place match.
Also placing in the top-four for Oregon in the tournament were 149-pounder Eric Webb (third) and Casey Hunt (fourth). Jason Harless finished fifth for Oregon in the 133-pound class but was selected as one of the four wild-card invitations to the national tournament.
The only Oregon wrestler not to win a match in the conference tournament was freshman Elias Soto (184). Soto first lost in a 16-6 decision to Portland State’s Charles Sandlin, who was seeded No. 3. Soto then lost to Arizona State’s Will Carr in the wrestleback quarterfinals, 5-1.
Placing third in the tournament behind the Ducks was Arizona State, who was a favorite to win, with 103.5 points.
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