(Photo: Brendan Belfield/WCSN)
1997.
That was the last year ASU Wrestling won the PAC-12 Championships at Desert Financial Arena until Sunday. The Sun Devils won the 2022 PAC-12 title in epic fashion, as well.
“I know the kids were really excited to be able to not only win the championship but to do it at home in front of all our people,” coach Zeke Jones said. “We had a great crowd.”
It took until the championship of the 285-pound weight class for the Sun Devils to narrowly squeeze out a team victory over Oregon State. Freshman 285-pound Cohlton Schultz defeated the Beavers’ Gary Traub 2-1 to give ASU .5 more team points than OSU.
“It’s always exciting being with the team, and being able to close out,” Schultz said. “A win in dramatic fashion with just a .5 point difference in team scores is pretty fun.”
The Sun Devils have relied on Schultz to close out a few matches this season, but none as big as tonight. Nonetheless, he was ready.
“I’m blessed that I’m able to be a difference-maker for my team,” Schultz said.
Junior 197-pound Kordell Norfleet’s major decision victory in his championship bout and freshman 149-pound Mykey Ramos’ third-place finish also helped secure the victory for the Sun Devils.
Heading into Norfleet’s championship match, ASU needed 4.5 team points to tie Oregon State in the team standings for first place. In the last 20 seconds, he scored just enough points to earn a major decision victory which helped ASU edge out the Beavers.
He won his fourth PAC-12 title and added three team points to help out the Sun Devils.
“I’m so alive right now,” Norfleet said. “Exhilarating is the one word to describe that.”
Ramos was seeded sixth headed into PAC-12s but came out as the third-best wrestler at the 141-pound weight class in the conference. It was also his first career home victory today.
“I felt like it was a good day because I was 0-4 just in this room, and to come out here and get teched right off the start wasn’t a good feeling, but then I built my emotion back into it,” Ramos said. “I was starting to feel my actual wrestling come out.”
Ramos is one of two ASU wrestlers from the valley. Junior 125-pound Brandon Courtney is the other.
“It means so much,” Courtney said. “[Ramos] is a tough kid because he’s a true freshman, and that takes a lot of guts… We may have won the whole thing tonight because of Mykey.”
In total, the Sun Devils won six individual conference titles and didn’t lose a single championship bout. Two ASU wrestlers, junior 133-pound Michael McGee and freshman 149-pound Kyle Parco, won their first PAC-12 titles today, and two more, junior 125-pound Brandon Courtney and sophomore 157-pound Jacori Teemer, won their third PAC-12 titles.
“This one is my favorite by far because it’s at home,” Courtney said. “The team scores had me on the edge of my seat the whole time, so this one is my favorite.”
ASU won its third consecutive PAC-12 championship and its fourth in the past five seasons.
“[ASU wrestlers] are smart,” Jones said. “They know what they are doing. They know time, score, and what they need to do and they got the job done.”
