After earning a hard-fought victory over Oregon State to begin their winter break competition, the wrestlers on the Oregon squad thought they were on the road to looking good this season.
Then came two losses to national powerhouse teams where the Ducks were dominated. Those losses were sandwiched around a sixth-place finish behind two conference foes at a national tournament.
Now Oregon needs to focus and get back on track to where it was during the Civil War meet.
Against Oregon State on Dec. 13, the Ducks went down 6-0 before sophomore Shane Webster took out his Beaver opponent 8-4 in the 174 weight class. Oregon State got its momentum back, however, and won the next three matchups.
Down 15-3, sophomore Martin Mitchell and the 125 weight class came next.
“I went in with the mindset that one of us was going to have to score bonus points,” Mitchell said.
Earning the pin at 2:28 into the first period, Mitchell gave the Ducks six points and their much-needed pick-me-up.
“That was huge,” senior Tony Overstake said. “His pin turned the tides.”

Redshirt junior Jason Harless followed Mitchell with a dominating performance in the 133 class, winning 10-6. Senior Casey Hunt started his match strong and held on to win 6-3 in the 141 class, tying the score at 15.
In the battle of the Tonys, Overstake and Oregon State freshman Tony Hook had the deciding match of the night. After a quick takedown by Hook, Overstake controlled the rest of the matchup, winning 9-3 and earning Oregon the 18-15 win.
“We’re getting started in the right direction,” Mitchell said after the Civil War match.
The next night, Oregon came out flat against No. 12 Nebraska.
Redshirt junior Jake Leair won the 197 match, scoring Oregon’s only points in the match. Nebraska took three major decisions and won the rest of the matches on decisions, overpowering the Ducks 30-3.
Leair had three takedowns and one escape, winning his match 7-1.
“It’s important to go out and win every time, but it’s more important that your team scores points,” Leair said.
Scoring points was something the Ducks were able to do at the Dec. 19 Reno Tournament of Champions, where Oregon finished sixth in the 22-team pool.
Senior leaders Hunt, at 141, and Overstake, at 149, both took second in their weight classes. Both wrestlers lost to top-10 ranked wrestlers from future opponents in the championship matchup.
Webster lost to the ninth-ranked wrestler in his weight class, but came back to win the third-place match. Redshirt sophomore Luke Larwin finished fourth in the 165 weight class, bouncing back from losses in both dual meets.
Among the eight Pacific-10 Conference teams competing, Oregon finished third. Arizona State took third place overall, leading the way for the Pac-10. Defending Pac-10 champion Boise State took fourth overall, finishing just behind Arizona State.
Friday the Ducks take on four teams in the Redmond-hosted Oregon Classic. Oregon will compete against No. 12 Central Michigan, No. 17 Wisconsin, Pacific and Pac-10 foe Cal State Fullerton.

De-ranked Ducks
Overstake, who won his last matchup at the Jan. 4 meet against Michigan, dropped from the 149 class individual rankings in the most recent poll. Senior Eric Webb also was dropped from the rankings, leaving Webster as the only individually-ranked wrestler on the Oregon squad. Webster moved up to No. 8 at 174 in the rankings.

Injury wagon
Webb, who started off the season with a strong showing at the Nov. 23 Body Bar Invitational, has sat out every competition since with an injury. His status was not available as of press time.