ASU Wrestling: Sun Devils battle-tested mindset helps win Pac-12 opener over Oregon State

(Photo: Travis David V Whittaker‎/WCSN)

Corvallis, Ore. — The No. 21 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils opened their Pac-12 wrestling season against unranked Oregon State University, as the Sun Devils defeated the Beavers by a narrow 20-13 decision on Sunday, Jan. 20, 2018.

In a dual where seven of the ten bouts were all decided by a single score, ASU was able to prevail in five of the seven closely-contested bouts, winning six of the ten contested bouts on the night.

“Every dual meet we are in is a fight, it’s a battle,” said coach Zeke Jones. “One thing we are good at is being battle-tested. If it gets difficult in a difficult moment, and it’s an equal bout I feel confident the guys will fight for it. That’s probably the difference tonight. The ones that were close, I think we eeked them out. We had to do the small things.”

Starting the night at 157 pounds, No. 14 Christian Pagdilao started a trend for ASU as they won the first four bouts of the night after defeating Hunter Willits by a narrow 3-1 decision.

After Josh Shields and Zahid Valencia picked up pivotal bonus-point victories, redshirt senior Jacen Petersen came back and picked up a narrow 7-5 (SV1) decision over Bob Coleman.

“Wrestling up a little bit makes it a little tough,” said Petersen. “I start out slow a lot of times and I get yelled at for it. It puts me in a hole to start with. My conditioning helps me out a lot going into the third period.”

OSU picked up their first string of wins on the night at winning at 197, Hwt and at 125-lb. as Jamarcus Grant defeated Austyn Harris 5-3 in the second straight overtime match of the night.

Heavyweight Amar Dhesi picked up a major 22-8 decision over Brady Daniel and No. 3 ranked Ronnie Bresser defeated Brandon Courtney by a narrow 2-1 decision.

Had Daniel gave up another point, OSU would have picked up a technical-fall win and the Beavers would have had another team point rolling into the 125-lb match.

“Whether you win a match or lose a match you have to protect the bonus points,” said Jones. “Brady did that. He understood that he needed to protect the bonus point. I think he did his part.”

Dhesi took third last season at the NCAA’s and competed at the World Championships for Canada a few months ago.

In a match that went back and forth, ASU’s Josiah Kline was able to stop the bleeding for the Sun Devils as he defeated OSU’s Kegan Calkins 10-8.

“Just kind of like a fight,” said Kline. “Just having to stay tough throughout the match and stay consistent, keep the pressure. Just try to wear on the guy and break him.”

After OSU’s Grant Willits defeated Cory Crooks in another sudden overtime victory match he closed the gap for the Beavers, but that gap was eventually sealed in the Sun Devils favor as No. 18 Josh Maruca defeated Josh Reyes 4-3 to give ASU the dual meet victory.

Next up, the Sun Devils will travel to Pennsylvania once again for dual meets against No. 24 ranked Lock Haven and unranked Lehigh University.

Jones sees this as yet another opportunity for his team to see great competition as they get closer to the Pac-12’s and the NCAA tournament.

“Anytime you go back east to go see Pennsylvania teams, they are good,” said Jones. “They are good in all three positions. They’re not just going to wrestle on your feet. They are going to wrestle top. They’re gonna wrestle bottom. There are some really good feature matchups I think that can go either way kind of like this dual meet.”