Adam Amato Emerald
Oregon’s Shaun Williams (left) lost to Michigan’s A.J. Grant (right) Friday at McArthur Court and injured his ankle in the process. Williams and the Ducks have two weeks before their next match.
After the Jan. 11 loss to No. 4 Michigan , which followed dual meets against then-No. 11 Northern Iowa and then-No. 16 Nebraska, the Oregon wrestling squad finally has some time off from competition.
Don’t expect the Ducks to sit back for a minute, though.
“It’s the start of our Pac-10 and national championship training program,” head coach Chuck Kearney said.
The next three weeks, during which the Ducks will face Pacific and Central Washington at McArthur Court on Jan. 25, Kearney said that his plan is to “extremely fatigue” his team in his two-a-day practices in order to prepare them for the remainder of the season.
A few of the Oregon wrestlers are coming back from injuries, and the ideal goal for the team — to be healthy and in excellent shape for the Pacific-10 Conference dual meets and championship portion of the season — seems to be a probability.
Jason Harless, who is 7-0 on the season at the 133-pound weight class but has not competed since Dec. 1 , is back on the practice mat wrestling at full strength. Tony Overstake, who last wrestled Dec. 20, still has lingering knee pain but is now drilling in “modified” live wrestling, Kearney said.
Shane Webster also has returned for the Ducks, and Kearney said that he is wrestling “as well as any of the guys coming back.”
On the other side of the injury scale, Eric Webb and Shaun Williams have been sidelined for the Ducks since Friday night’s loss to Michigan.
Heavyweight wrestler Webb, who aggravated his toe injury on Friday, now will have his foot in an immobilization boot for the next 10 days. Williams is suffering from an ankle sprain and has missed the Ducks’ last two practices.
Conference foes
In the latest Pac-10 polls, released Jan. 7, Oregon is ranked No. 3 behind Oregon State and No. 1 Arizona State. The Sun Devils are the defending Pac-10 champions and feature wrestlers ranked in the top-four in the conference in eight of the 10 weight classes, including the No. 1 wrestler in the nation at 141 pounds, junior Eric Larkin.
This weekend the Sun Devils, ranked 10th in the nation, travel to Ohio State to compete in the 2002 Cliff Keen/NWCA National Duals. Their first-round opponent will be No. 6 Iowa State. The Cyclones of Iowa State feature the best 165-pound wrestler in the country, Joe Heskett. Iowa State’s lineup also includes No. 1 Cael Sanderson at 197-pounds, who is 20-0 this season and 138-0 in his collegiate career.
Michigan finishes sweep
After beating the Ducks last Friday night, the Michigan wrestling squad headed up to Corvallis the next night to face the Beavers and came away with another win. The 25-14 loss brought Oregon State’s record to 7-6, but head coach Joe Wells was pleased with his wrestlers.
“It was a good meet,” Wells said. “We fought hard and I’m proud of our guys.”
The Beavers’ 184-pounder, Isaac Weber, came up with a upset win over No. 2 Andy Hrovat, who pinned Oregon freshman Elias Soto at Mac Court on Friday.
Michigan’s Clark Forward (141 pounds), who lost a close 5-4 decision to Oregon’s Brian Watson, was pinned on Saturday night by the Beavers’ Casey Horn 1:13 into the match.
The No. 2 wrestler in the nation, Otto Olson barely came away with a victory (3-2) against Oregon State’s 174-pounder Nathan Coy.
E-mail sports reporter Chris Cabot at [email protected].