The Oregon wrestling squad has started its season on the right track.
After soundly beating Stanford on Saturday afternoon, the Ducks faced California-Davis in the nightcap and came away with win No. 2 of the season.
Head coach Chuck Kearney said there was some nervousness heading into the first match against Stanford.
“We still dominated and still did a good job but were a little bit flat in that first competition,” Kearney said.
The team bounced back, though, for the evening meet against Cal-Davis, allowing only three takedowns in all 10 weight classes. Against Stanford, the Ducks were taken down 10 times, while recording 27 of their own.
“We wrestled with real good intensity and dominated in all areas: on our feet, on top and on the bottom,” Kearney said.
Freshman Elias Soto at 184 pounds was the only Oregon wrestler to lose his individual match against Stanford. In all the other weight classes, Oregon came away with wins to bring the final score to 29-4.
In the second meet against Cal-Davis, a 31-9 win, the Ducks lost two matches. Branson Phillips was pinned by Cal-Davis’s Jerimiah Jarvis in the 157-pound match, and Eugene Harris lost a double overtime decision 2-1 to Burt Pierson at 165 pounds.
Harris, a senior who wrestled at 157 pounds the last two seasons, came out strong in his first competition at 165 pounds. He led the way for the Ducks with the biggest margin of victory in the Stanford match, an 18-9 major decision over John Garfinkel.
Freshman Shane Webster came away from the trip to Stanford with his first two collegiate wins, 24-17 over Stanford and 18-12 over Cal-Davis. The other starting freshman for Kearney’s squad, Soto, rebounded from his loss against Stanford to defeat Cal-Davis’s Bret Hallenbeck, 9-2.
“(Soto) made some freshman mistakes in his first match that cost him, and a lot of times when you are young it is easy to let that snowball into the second match,” Kearney said. “He did a real good job of coming back and competing after a defeat, and had a nice win against Cal-Davis.”
Jason Harless and Jake Leair, both of whom redshirted last season after competing as true freshmen, won their matches. Harless, wrestling at 133 pounds, recorded a major decision (13-3) against Urijah Faber of Cal-Davis and beat Justin Walker of Stanford 5-3. Both Faber and Walker are near the top wrestlers in the conference in the 133-pound weight class.
Other Oregon wrestlers who won both their matches were Shaun Williams at 125, with a major decision against Cal-Davis; Brian Watson at 141; Tony Overstake at 149; and Eric Webb at the heavyweight level.