With one meet already under its belt, the Oregon wrestling team looks to understand a bit more about itself Saturday when the Ducks travel to their second tournament of the year, the SOC Best of the West Tournament in Ashland.
Southern Oregon will host the event.
Oregon received strong performances from several of its wrestlers in the team’s opening meet, the Cowboy Open in Laramie, Wyo., last Saturday.
The Ducks placed eight wrestlers in the event, led by freshmen Cyle Hartzell, who paced the Duck finishers with a second place finish in his 149-pound weight class.
Junior Luke Larwin finished third in this 165 weight class. Meanwhile, Chet McBee claimed third in the 174 class. Sophomore Joey Bracamonte finished fourth in the 165 class, as did Skyler Woods in his 141 class.
“Luke Larwin is ready to have a breakout year,” head coach Chuck Kearney said. “(Skyler) Woods is ready to have a breakout year, (a lot of wrestlers) are on the verge of breakout years.”
Larwin finished last Saturday with a record of 4-1, as did McBee, giving them the best record, percentage-wise, on the team.
Woods’ younger brother, Scott, took fourth in the 157 class. Oregon redshirt freshman Cody Parker, competing in the heavyweight division, finished the day fifth overall. Ending the day, sophomore Jacob Boyles finished fifth in the 125 class.
The SOC Best of the West is a 20-year old Southern Oregon University Open wrestling tournament.
The tournament also features youth and junior tournaments in addition to the collegiate wrestlers.
Joining the Ducks on the mat will be Oregon State, Portland State, San Francisco State, Menlo, Pacific and a number of junior colleges.
Kearney believes that seeing similar teams in open tournament formats allows the Ducks to be able to grasp how they will need to wrestle in the Pacific-10 Conference.
“We are wrestling against people we will see a lot of,” Kearney said. “We also get to see different types of competition.”
Southern Oregon has already seen one of the weekends competitors in No. 6 NAIA Menlo College.
The Raiders bounced back from an 18-0 deficit to beat Menlo, 23-18, a week ago. Southern Oregon is ranked seventh in the same division as Menlo.
Oregon State opened their season with a loss to No. 8 Nebraska last Saturday.
Oregon State heavyweight Ty Watterson, a redshirt freshman making his varsity debut, battled with No. 15 Mitch Mastedt into overtime before losing, 8-6. The Beavers’ Matt Ellis lost 2-0 in the 165 class to No. 13 Jacob Klein.
After the Ducks travel south this weekend, the team will regroup and work on its Pac-10 schedule. Oregon State will present Oregon’s first Pac-10 matchup Dec. 13 in Corvallis.
The team should get a preview of what to expect against Oregon State after this weekend.
Oregon’s first home meet is slated for the next day, Dec. 14, against No. 1 Oklahoma State. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m.
Saturday’s meet will take place at the Compton Arena at the Jackson County Expo. The meet will begin at 9 a.m.