With the Broncos and Sun Devils coming to Eugene this weekend, Oregon battles its toughest conference competition on its home mat.
The Ducks are 4-0 in Pacific-10 Conference dual meets, and 1-6 against non-conference opponents, including losses at No. 7 Oklahoma and No. 1 Oklahoma State last weekend.
“We want to go out and wrestle at a high level of intensity,” head coach Chuck Kearney said. “We want to wrestle at the same level of intensity we did last weekend.
“We’re doing some things a lot better. It’s a matter of doing the little things to win matches.”
The little things will be important today at 7 p.m. as the Ducks take on Boise State, ranked No. 12 by Intermat. The Broncos feature four seniors ranked in the top 10 of their weight class by The Wrestling Mall.
Ben VomBaur, at 125, leads the Broncos in the rankings. VomBaur is ranked No. 3 in his weight class. Collin Robertson is ranked No. 5 at the 149 weight class.
Gabe Vigil, at 141, and heavyweight Boe Rushton both sit at No. 7 in their weight classes. Junior Tony D’Amico is ranked No. 18 at 184.
“Boise State is a solid team that wrestles hard,” Kearney said.
Last season, Oregon lost at Boise State in overtime of the final matchup of the night. The Broncos took first place at the Pac-10 Championships one month later, finishing ahead of Oregon by only 7.5 points.
“Our guys are going to be fired up for it,” Kearney said.
The Ducks will look for a good showing Friday night to propel them into Sunday, when they face the highest-ranked Pac-10 team. Arizona State, ranked No. 6 by Intermat, will battle the Ducks at 2 p.m. at McArthur Court.
Sun Devil redshirt senior Erik Larkin is ranked No. 1 by The Wrestling Mall at 149. Fellow redshirt seniors Kellan Fluckiger and Dana Holland sit in the top five. Fluckiger, at heavyweight, is No. 4. Holland is No. 5 at 141.
Two more redshirt seniors are ranked in the top 10 — Curtis Owen at 174 is No. 8, and Mike Simpson at 133 is No. 9. Redshirt junior Nick Frost is ranked No. 8 at 165.
Oregon will be wrestling the same 10 wrestlers that have competed for the Ducks the past two weekends.
Sophomore Shane Webster leads the Ducks in the polls, ranked No. 7 by Intermat at the 174 weight class. Webster is 19-3 on the season, including 9-2 in dual meets.
Tony Overstake will have the most difficult opponents to face at 149. Overstake sits at No. 17 in two polls and is not ranked in the other two.
Robertson, from Boise State, is ranked in the top 10 by four polls, while Sun Devil opponent Larkin is ranked No. 1 by the same four polls.
Freshman Tony Rolen has won three of his last four matches. Rolen earned his first pin of the season against Oklahoma’s Derrick Brown at the 3:51 mark of the matchup.
Martin Mitchell entered the rankings this week. Mitchell, a sophomore, is ranked No. 20 by W.I.N. Magazine at the 125 weight class.
Senior Casey Hunt also was ranked this week, sitting at No. 19 in The Wrestling Mall’s rankings.
Oregon was placed in the “teams to watch” section of Intermat’s rankings this week. The Ducks have the opportunity to jump into the top 25 if they compete well against the only two ranked Pac-10 teams this weekend.
“If we want to compete for conference championships, these are the kinds of teams we’re going to have to beat,” Kearney said.