(Photo: Travis David V Whittaker/WCSN)
On November 17, 2018 the Sun Devil Wrestling Team hosted North Carolina in Tempe. North Carolina is currently ranked 24th in the nation and the Sun Devils are ranked 11th.
Starting off the meet in the 125-lb weight class for the Sun Devils was Ryan Millhof and for the Tar Heels was Joe Heilmann. They both went scoreless in the first period. Millhof scored two points early in the second and won the match 2-0 with 3:18 minutes in riding time. This gave Arizona State a quick lead over North Carolina 3-0.
Next up, in the 133-lb weight class was Josiah Kline and James Szyamski. After an intense first period both wrestlers remained scoreless. Then into the second period Kline got an early lead with an escape point putting him ahead 1-0, then later in the second period Kline had a two-point take down. Then in the third period, Szyamski had an escape but Kline answered back with another two points. The final of this match was 5-1 Kline, giving Arizona State a lead of 6-0.
In the 141-lb weight class was Cory Crooks for Arizona State and Jamie Hernandez for North Carolina. Hernandez lead Crooks throughout the match, and the final score was 12-4 with 2:18 in riding time.
This gave the Tar Heels four points and now they trailed the Sun Devils 6-4. Then in the 149-lb weight class Arizona State’s Josh Maruca took on North Carolina’s Austin O’Connor. After a tight match O’Connor took the 3-2 win. This now put North Carolina in the lead 7-6.
Up after Maruca for the Sun Devils was Chrisitan Pagdilao in the 157-lb weight class. He went head to head with North Carolina’s Kennedy Monday.
Pagdilao fell behind to Monday in the first 6-2 but started to come back in the second with a two point take down. The final of the match was 11-7 with Monday on top. This put the Tar Heels in the lead 10-6.
Moving on to the 165-lb weight class, Arizona State’s Josh Shields wrestled Josh McClure. The two went back and forth in the first period with McClure getting an early two points then Sheilds answering with two points.
In this close match it was 8-4 with Arizona State in the lead going into the third period. During the third period, McClure had to take a blood time out. Shields maintained his lead in the third and the final score was 14-8. This now made the dual score 10-9 with North Carolina winning.
During this meet, the Sun Devils had a slight change in their match-ups. Jacen Petersen, who is typically a 165-pounder, moved up to 174 for this meet. He wrestled Devin Kane. Kane came out on top early. After the first period, Petersen trailed Kane 4-1. Kane kept his lead during the match and won 9-2.
Another wrestler that switched weight classes was Zahid Valencia. Valencia is in the 174-lb weight class, but he wrestled in the 184-weight class against Chip Ness. Even though Valencia was up a weight class he still won 9-6. Afterward, he claimed he went up a weight class to “do it for the team, and try to find the best way to win. So, I mean I am always ready for whatever is out there for me.”
A similar performance was given by 184-pounder Kordell Norfleet, who wrestled at the 197-weight class. He came out on top against North Carolina’s Chasen Blair. The final of the match was 9-4 with 1:31 in riding time for Norfleet.
After the match, Norfleet claimed that he was not nervous going up a weight class because of his preparation. He stated “I wasn’t caught off guard or anything. They asked me to do it, no hesitation I said yes, I knew I could win so.” This match now made the dual meet 16-15 with one bout left.
The match up for the heavy weights was an interesting one. Arizona State’s Brady Daniel faced off against his own brother, Cory Daniel. Cory is a redshirt senior at North Carolina and Brady is a freshman at Arizona State. Brady ended up losing to his older brother 10-3.
The Arizona State wrestling team lost the meet to North Carolina 20-15. Afterwards, head coach Zeke Jones claimed that North Carolina’s team “out-toughed us, I think we just tried to win, they tried to fight us, and they won the fight, we look uninspired right, we didn’t have this inspiration to go out and really want to not just try to win, hope I win, but to go out and dominate without question.”
