(Photo:Travis David V Whittaker/WCSN)
This weekend the Sun Devils travel to Oregon State to face the Beavers. Last week the team traveled to the East Coast for the Virginia duals.
Arizona State ended up placing fourth and is ranked No. 21 according to this week’s NCAA.com rankings.
This past week the wrestling team has been practicing and preparing to travel to Oregon State. When redshirt junior Josh Maruca, was asked how they are getting ready for the match he stated “Just prepare for this match just like any other week, Oregon State is a tough team they have some good guys. We just watch film like normal and try to go out and put the best foot forward.”
This match against Oregon State begins the second half of the season and is the beginning of in-conference matches. Maruca also stated “you just got to put your head down and grind it out throughout the season and just try to out-work your opponents as much as you can,” in regard to the rest of the season.
In the 125 lbs matchup against the Beavers this Sunday, it is still being determined who will be wrestling for ASU. Currently, Ryan Millhof is in concussion protocol after suffering a concussion during the Midlands Championships but might be able to wrestle against Oregon State.
Another possibility for ASU is Brandon Courtney. He is a current redshirt freshman who made his debut at Penn State earlier in the season. He is confident in the matchup and claimed, “I feel like I’m ready. I feel like I can do it and it’s going to be a big match, I’m excited.”
For Oregon State, Ronnie Bresser will be wrestling in the 125-weight class. Bresser is a redshirt senior who was an All-American in the 2017-18 season.
Courtney fell to Bresser last season at the Reno Tournament of Championshions. Going into the matchup Courtney stated, “I got to control the pace I got to go out there, I got to make him react to everything I do. I can’t stop moving. I got to make sure I give it to him.”
Oregon State is unranked this season, but redshirt junior Zahid Valencia is still keeping up his intensity.
“We don’t overlook anyone, in college everyone wrestles tough so just going out there and making sure we wrestle each match, each team hard and smart,” Valencia said.
He was named Most Outstanding Wrestler in the Virginia Duals for the past three seasons.
Head coach Zeke Jones is getting the team ready by focusing on the technical areas that they need to work on. He claimed that they need “to be able to get off the bottom, get out of legs, be able to score points on your feet.”
When asked about Oregon State he said “they’re probably a similar team to us, so I think it will come down to who wants it more, who wants to fight for it more.”
The match will begin at 7 p.m. on Sunday, January 20, 2019. This can be viewed on the Pac-12 Networks.
