(Photo: Travis David V Whittaker/WCSN)
In what was the dual meet talked about for over a year, the No. 6 Arizona State wrestling team avenged last season’s loss at Rec Hall by upseting the No. 1 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions in Tempe 19-18.
Penn State held a 60 match-dual meet win streak entering Tempe. Now the Nittany Lions will now return to Happy Valley with their first loss in a dual meet in nearly five years.
The last team to beat Penn State in a dual meet were the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Feb. 15, 2015.
8,522 wrestling fans witnessed history on Friday night inside of Desert Financial Arena but history is exactly what ASU wrestling coach Zeke Jones had in mind when taking the job in Tempe back in 2014.
“Zahid (Valencia) and Anthony (Valencia), Tanner (Hall), (Josh) Shields, (Josh) Maruca they were the first believers that we could get to this place,” Jones said. “Now their belief is coming true. First belief that it could be done…”
Belief is exactly what he got into the heads of his wrestlers as both Maruca and Shields hail from the state of Pennsylvania.
“Whenever Zeke came to my house he told me we want you to come to ASU because we are trying to bring our program up to a National caliber level,” Maruca said. “Thats been the goal the entire time since i’ve been here. To beat this team in Tempe is an awesome feeling.”
With Brandon Courtney winnning at 125-lb., Marcua winning at 149-lb. and Jacori Teemer winning at 157-lb., Sun Devils had momentum going into the intermission with a narrow 10-8 lead after the first 5 matches.
“I just want to go out and put as much points on the board as I could,” Maruca said. “That’s my main thought process. Don’t let him dictate the pace.”
After coming back after an injury a few weeks ago Teemer earned his first victory as a Sun Devil with a 9-4 dec. over Bo Pipher.
“Jacori did what he needed to do in his match,” Jones said. “That’s what Champions do. They go out at 70 percent and find a way to win.”
The second half of matches featured ASU and Penn State’s big guns. Four of which were prior individual national champions and three of which were national champions last year.
Penn State’s 165-lb. Vincenzo Joseph, HWT Anthony Cassar and ASU’s Zahid Valencia return as National Champions from a season ago. Mark Hall won in St. Louis in 2017 at 174-lb. losing to Zahid twice.
Penn State was victorious in three of the five matches but the turning point came when Penn State coach Cael Sanderson elected to forfeit the 184-lb. match to give the Sun Devils a narrow 16-15 lead after eight matches.
Jones felt like Penn State forfeited at 184-lb. because its normal wrestler at 184-lb. (Shakur Rasheed) was not prepared for the match, also giving them a momentum swing into 197-lb. match.
“Zahid hasn’t felt him yet, ” Jones said. “(Shakur Rasheed) is good. We aren’t going to assume anything. We need to be ready for him when we get there.”
197-lb. Kordell Norfleet then took the mat for the first time in nearly a year shocking No. 7 Kyle Conel by a 10-4 Dec. giving the Devils a four-point lead going into the HWT match.
Norfleet described his emotions back on the mat as, “Felt like homecoming,” Norfleet said. “Once I shook coach Zeke’s hand everything just slowed down.”
Norfleet qualified for the NCAA Tournament as a freshman but battled the injury bug all season last year.
“He loves to compete,” Jones said. “I think he’s just starting to show people how good he is.”
Cassasr, the No. 1 ranked HWT and returning National Champion from a year ago, nearly pinned Hall early in the match. Hall worked his way back from the 0-6 hole but fell to the returning champ 9-5 avoiding the Maj. Dec. and giving ASU the 19-18 team score victory to pull off the upset.
Had Cassar pinned Hall, the Nittany Lions streak would still be alive and they would have won the dual meet 22-18. Instead, ASU wrestling did something no teams were able to do over the last five years.
“Arizona State is back and people have belief again,” Jones said.
“I was very pleased for our men who stayed their course,” Jones said. “I know they dreamed about this day.”
Arizona State wrestling will now take a break from competition for a few weeks before heading for the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas, Nevada on Dec. 6 and 7.
