(Photo: Travis David V Whittaker/WCSN)
With another day in the books at PPG Paints Arena, the Arizona State Wrestling team knows where it stands headed into the last day of the NCAA Wrestling National Championships.
Three All-Americans for a second consecutive season and a wrestler with an opportunity to go back to back as an NCAA Champion.
Christian Pagdilao will wrestle for seventh place after working his way back through the consolation side of the bracket by winning consecutive matches after falling to Jason Nolf in the quarterfinals by a 23-6 technical-fall.
“Christian [Pagdilao] becoming an All-American that was really important to him and the team. He found a way to win,” said Zeke Jones.
Prior to his semi-finals match, Josh Shields was looking forward to wrestling Vincenzo Joesph as they are both grew up nearby.
“It’s fun, it’s exactly how I would want it to be,” said Shields.
Sheilds was the main agressor for the majority of his semi-finals match and gave up an early takedown, then earned two escapes but was unable to get that key takedown to come out on top as he dropped a narrow 3-2 Dec. to Joesph of Penn State.
Shields will have a chance to comeback from his semi-finals match to finish in third place in the nation.
“Heartbroken for Josh Shields,” said Jones. “Great, great man in his hometown with a tremendous amount of fan support. He wrestled tough. He got shot on right at the whistle right out of the gate. He just couldn’t get to Joesph’s leg. Proud of him. Made the NCAA semi-finals as a redshirt junior.”
Valencia, who avenged an earlier loss this season to Daniel Lewis of Missouri, was able to earn his 100th win as a Sun Devil in his semi-final match after defeating Lewis 11-3.
“I’m happy with the result that I had,” said Valencia. “An 11-3 win after getting beat, pinned by Lewis earlier in the season. I just went out there trying to put a bunch of points up. Being confident in myself. That was something that I lacked last time, this time I just let it fly.”
Valencia will now have an opportunity to defend his title against a familiar opponent in Mark Hall of Penn State, whom he defeated in last years finals 8-2 and lost to earlier this year 4-0.
“He’s one of the greatest Sun Devils of all-time,” said Jones. “He’s got unfinished business. Like we all saw when he held that finger up that meant one more. That wasn’t I’m number one. One more to go. That [match] wasn’t the one I’m focused on.”
Arizona State will now have a chance to go undefeated for the third consecutive year on day three of the NCAA tournament as Pagdilao, Shields and Valencia will try to end their season on a high note.
ASU had redshirt HWT Tanner Hall and Zahid Valencia come back to finish in third two years ago in St. Louis. Last season in Cleveland, Jason Tsirstis and Josh Sheilds finished in 7th place. Valencia won a National title.
Pagdilao is an All-American as a graduate senior, Shields is now a two-time All-Amreican as a redshirt junior and Valencia is a three-time All-American as well as a two-time NCAA finalist at 174 lb.
ASU sits in 12th place in the team standings with 37 points, trailing Rugters by 6.5 points. Penn State leads the charge with 120.5 team points and will have five wrestlers in the finals.
Pagdilao and Shields will wrestle in the morning session. Valencia will wrestle at night. Finals can be seen on ESPN at 7:00 PM ET.
