(Photo: Travis Whittaker/WCSN)
The wrestling season has finally started at Arizona State University. On Friday, November 2, the Sun Devil wrestling team had an intrasquad meet. On November 10, the team will begin their regular season away at the 48th Bison Open. The purpose of the intrasquad meet was to get the wrestlers ready for the season and make final decisions on who the starters will be.
Starting off the meet in the 133-weight class was redshirt junior Josh Kramer facing off against another redshirt junior, Ted Rico. After a tight match, with the decision determined by riding time, Kramer ended up winning 10-9. Next on the mat was Chad Porter and Austyn Harris in the 197-weight class. This was a low scoring match up. Going into the third period the score was 1- 1, then Harris ended up with the win with a final of 3-2.
Then going back down to the smaller weight classes, in the 125-weight class, Ryan Millhof faced off against Aaron Valenzuela. Millhof came away with and early lead of 20-3 and the match ended with a technical fall. The next match was the heavy weights. Bradley Daniel took the win 4-2. This gave the Maroon team their first win. After the fourth match, the Gold team was leading the Maroon team 11-3.
The next match was the second technical fall of the night. In the 184-weight class Noor Almusahwi fell to Kordell Norfleet in the second period, 18-3. Last season Norfleet won the PAC-12 championship at the 184-weight class.
Then the first pin of the night came from sophomore Josiah Kline. Rico fell to Kline after being up in the first period. Kline’s win gave another win for the maroon team. Then, the seventh match of the night was in the 165-weight class. Shields lead going into the third period 3-1 then held on to his lead and the final was 6-3. Next up was Dillon Ulrey and Christian Pagdilao in the 157-weight class. After the first period both the wrestlers were scoreless, but Pagdilao ended up coming up on top 13-5.
Going into the 141-weight class, Cory Crooks and Navonte Demison faced off. This tight match had to be determined by a sudden death one-minute period. However, right as the third period ended Demison injured his knee. He continued on with the match but Crooks came out with a win 20 seconds into the overtime period after scoring an escape point.
In the tenth match of the night, the 149-lb. freshman Jacori Teemer went head to head with Josh Maruca. Teemer started to make a comeback in the second period with a two point take down, making the score 3-2. The final of this match was 7-5 with Teemer getting the win. This freshman is confident about the upcoming season and stated that his goal this season is to win Midlands.
The final match of the night was Josh Kramer and Josiah Kline. Even though this was Kline’s second match of the night he was unaffected. He ended up pinning Kramer in the second period. Kline had a total of two pins at the meet and accounted for 12 of the 18 points on the Maroon team. The final score of the meet was 32-18, with the Gold team winning.
After the meet, coach Zeke Jones stated that his expectations for this team are to “improve and make sure we are getting better.” Jones also claimed that the meet “showed us where we’re at, what we are doing well and what we need to work on.”
