(Photo: Owen Plagge/WCSN)
TEMPE – The roar of excitement rang throughout the gym.
Embry-Riddle celebrated Kenneth Copley’s comeback against heavyweight first-year Kel-El Fluckiger as they were dead even at 7 points. Both team benches leaned in as the last 30 seconds of the match would be crucial. It looked like Fluckiger had run out of gas. All the momentum was on Copley’s side.
Here came Fluckiger. The Chandler, Ariz. native cartwheeled out of a takedown attempt, scoring him a point and granting him the win.
Arizona State’s bench celebrated, securing its second sweep of the day. The Sun Devil Invitational was a great opportunity for reps ahead of the massive match against Oklahoma State University in a week’s time. ASU jumped at these opportunities by dominating a large majority of the matches and tournaments going on throughout the day. The Sun Devils did this by beating Hope International 55-0, Embry-Riddle 51-0, and Arizona Christian University 46-6, with their only individual loss coming due to a forfeit.
However, not everything was viewed as high level, as head coach Zeke Jones seemed to be more critical of the performances than others.
“Strong performances were ok,” Jones said. “I think we could have scored probably more points, did some skills better, but I think we just gotta continue to prepare… but while we were wrestling today I think we were looking ahead some. I gotta make sure we’re not wrestling to the level of our competitor. We gotta wrestle whether you’re wrestling NAIA Division III, Division II, Division I or [a] world Olympic champion; it should be the same effort, why would it be different?”
One wrestler that followed these words closely was second-year Christian Castillo. The 125-pound standout wrestled twice and won with ease as he won his first match by fall with 1:05 left in the first round. His second match was even more dominant as he won by fall with just 2:24 left in the first round. Both continue Castillo’s early run of form, giving him a nice runway into next week’s match.
“I think the most important thing no matter who you’re wrestling or who your team is going against is keeping your mindset the same,” Castillo said. “I’m going to go out there and try to score takedowns no matter if the guys are supposed to be the best in the country [or the] best in the world.”
“I think his biggest thing is just staying consistent the whole year, not too high, not too low, just going out there wrestling, giving your all no matter what.”
Fellow wrestlers Kyler and Kaleb Larkin backed these words with punishing performances of their own. Kyler Larkin, the 141-pounder, wrestled against all three teams and won every match by fall, with his toughest matchup coming against Embry Riddle. Early pressure from fourth-year Yoshiya Funakoshi made it difficult for Larkin to gain any type of advantage early. However, the perseverance of Larkin was ultimately too much as he overcame the early pressure and won by Tech fall.
Kaleb Larkin was just as formidable, as he won both of his matches by tech fall while leaving plenty of time on the clock. The 174-pounder was relentless in his matches and aimed to use tilts to help him score more points on the ground and really use his size.
In between the brothers on the lineup card lies Nicco Ruiz. The reliable 165-pounder also enjoyed a fruitful night as he scored two tech falls with 28 and 20 seconds left in each match.
Pierson Manville continued his stretch of wins as he claimed two more tech fall wins with relentless pressure and shots. He looks to be a dependable part of the lineup, while the heavyweights seem to be in rotation without a legitimate starter.
Max Acciardi looks to be making a push for matches at 285 as he wrestled 5 different times and won all 5 matches. Each one was competitive and grueling as he went the distance on a couple, giving him good preparation for potential future matches to come.
As far as next week’s matchup, it looks to be an early test and opportunity for many of these wrestlers to create noise around their name as they continue to work through other matchups–ultimately striving for the NCAA Championships in March.
“I’m excited for that one, that one’s gonna be fun,” Castillo said. “The biggest thing is just keeping my energy high and probably trying to lift the guys up. We need to have them step up cause it’s not easy going out there. Whatever they rank, they’re just people at the end of the day.”
ASU will look to shock Oklahoma State at home next week as many of those wrestlers have high aspirations leading into March. However, Jones seems to have high expectations for the team next week.
“I like how we match up against Oklahoma State,” Jones said. “When you’re on your home court, anything can happen, but we know we’ve got a team that’s gonna come after us that likes to wrestle hard and they score a lot of points, and we’re gonna need to be ready for that.”
