The Oregon wrestlers wrapped up the Pacific-10 Conference tournament Monday with six wrestlers placing in the top six in their respective weight class.
Shane Webster led the Ducks with a second-place finish at 174. Webster lost a 3-1 decision to Arizona State’s Curtis Owen. Owen took a 10-4 decision from Webster when the Ducks and Sun Devils met in a January dual meet.
Webster earned a second-straight trip to the NCAA Championships with his second-place finish. He won two major decisions on Sunday on his way to the title match. The sophomore improved on a third-place conference finish during his freshman season.
As a team, the Ducks finished fifth in the conference with 68 points. Arizona State won the team title with 134 points and six individual champions.
Senior Casey Hunt won his first match over Oregon State’s Mike Unger at 141. The 5-3 decision marked the third time in three matchups that Hunt beat Unger this season.
In the match to decide third and fourth place, Hunt faced Cal State-Fullerton’s Juan Mora. Hunt was seeded No. 3 in the tournament, while Mora was the No. 4 seed. The high-scoring match followed the seeding order, giving Hunt the third-place victory with a 13-10 decision.
Hunt earned a trip to the national tournament with his finish and improved over his fourth-place Pac-10 finish last season.
Redshirt sophomore Luke Larwin, at 165, faced Cal Davis’ Michael Font for the right to wrestle for third place. Larwin won a decision, 5-3, setting up a fourth match this season against Oregon State’s Matt Ellis.
Ellis knocked Larwin out of the championship bracket Sunday with a 3-2 decision, and took the third-place match with a 3-1 decision. Larwin received fourth place with the loss, earning a trip to the NCAA Championships.
At 125, sophomore Martin Mitchell battled another Beaver, Michael Delaney, to a 5-3 decision in Delaney’s favor. Mitchell then faced Stanford’s Nathan Peterson in the match to decide fifth and sixth place. Mitchell pinned his opponent at the 1:03 mark for fifth place and his ninth pin of the season.
Facing Cal Poly’s Nate Ybarra, redshirt junior Jason Harless lost a 8-3 decision in his first match Monday, sending him to the battle for fifth place at 133.
Against Cardinal wrestler Brad Metzler, Harless won a close battle by tiebreaker after the two wrestlers finished the regulation tied at one. Harless earned fifth place for the second consecutive year.
Junior Branson Phillips also started Monday with a loss. Boise State’s Ben Cherrington won a 9-3 decision over Phillips to bounce him to fifth place match.
Phillips then faced No. 1-seeded Matt Gentry of Stanford. Phillips ran up the match with an 11-4 decision over Gentry. Gentry spent much of the season nationally ranked. In January, the only time Phillips and Gentry faced each other during the dual season, then-No. 17 Gentry won a 10-4 decision.
The top four wrestlers from each weight class earn trips to the national tournament. Three wild-card berths to the national tournament are also given out to three wrestlers who did not finish in the top four of their weight class. Those three wrestler’s names were not available at press time.
Webster, Hunt and Larwin will represent the Ducks in Kansas City, Mo., on March 20 when the NCAA Championship tournament begins.