(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
Arizona State wrestling will travel to Corvallis on Sunday to face off against Cal Poly, CSU Bakersfield, Oregon State, Stanford and University of Little Rock Arkansas in the Pac 12 tournament.
Stanford could be the biggest threat to a repeat Sun Devil championship. Stanford ended the season with a 5-3 record and although they did not face off against ASU during the regular season, they were able to defeat Cal Poly and Oregon State. The Cardinal are led by 174-pounder Shane Griffith.
Cal Poly struggled this season finishing below .500 with a record of 2-3. They lost badly to a hot Sun Devil team on February 11th, which can be a sign of things to come for the tournament.
CSU Bakersfield only competed two times the whole entire season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In their two matches they lost to Stanford and Little Rock, both of whom will be competing in the Pac-12 tournament. CSU Bakersfield has not been able to play in any duels since January 24th. Signs of rust could be evident come tournament time.
Although the Little Rock Wrestling team was able to compete in 12 duels this season, most of them did not go as they would hoped, as Little Rock ended with an abysmal 2-10 record. The Sun Devils faced Little Rock early on in the season going on to come through with a convincing 39-3 victory.
The Sun Devils have a little history with Oklahoma State being that of their former assistant coach Chris Pendleton who is now the head coach for Oklahoma State. Arizona State Coach Zeke Zones still loves Pendlton but will not be thinking of their past relationship during the Pac-12 tournament.
“It’s fun to see your assistant coach elevated to head coaching jobs,” Jones said. “That’s what they aspire to be, but that’s where it ends. We will put our hands on him too, we want to make sure that we send the message loud and clear that Arizona State is ready to compete for a championship and he hasn’t made it easy on us either. So no problem, it’s wrestling, it’s a high combat sport and that’s what we do.”
The Sun Devils had a very successful season going 6-0 while players such as 174-pounder Trey Munoz and heavyweight Cohlton Schultz have been able to climb up the rankings as the season has progressed.
However, Coach Zeke Zones still feels that top college wrestling teams have disrespected them despite their tremendous talent.
“We haven’t been able to wrestle, Iowa, Iowa State, I’ve been careful not to say it in public but it’s mostly because they won’t wrestle us,” Jones said. “We ask them every year. They never schedule us so we can only ascend so high within those team rankings and our chance to do it is in a tournament in December but really the NCAA tournament. I think there’s a little chip on our shoulder. I think the guys are disappointed they have not gotten a chance to really find out where they are as a team but, the nice thing is we get the NCAA championship.”
Arizona State has won a Pac-12 championship 4 out of the last 5 years and look to continue their dominance of their conference in the upcoming tournament.
