(Photo: Travis David V Whittaker/WCSN)
In a season that had many battles, struggles and achievements, the greatest achievement for the season came on the last match that a Sun Devil Wrestler would compete in for the 2018-19 season.
Redshirt junior Zahid Valencia earned his second consecutive national title at 174-lb. for ASU after defeating Mark Hall of Penn State University by a narrow 4-3 Dec. in the 2019 NCAA Finals for a second straight year.
With the win, Valencia became one of only three wrestlers to win multiple National Championships as a Sun Devil.
Dan St. Jon won his two titles in 1989 and 1990 along with Markus Mollica in 1993 and 1995.
“Anytime you have a national champion in your program it’s a testament of the work that a lot of people have done,” said Zeke Jones. “No one person can do it. You have a tremendous community of people who support it. President Crow decided that we were either not going to have a team or were going to have the best team in the country. We don’t have the best team in the country yet but it starts with building national champions. We’re on the right track.”
Earlier in the season, Valencia lost to Hall at Rec Hall in Penn State by a 4-0 Dec. and was pinned by Daniel Lewis of Missouri in his own arena.
Using those losses as a way to refocus with just over a month and a half left in the season, Valencia had just enough time to fix what needed to be done in order to come out on top when it mattered the most.
Ending the season in his last seven matches after losing to Lewis on Feb. 8, he outscored his opposition 79-20. Two of those seven matches were won by pin.
“It wasn’t a fluke, my continued hard work and dedication to wrestling just because so passionate about it, love it,” said Valencia. “And especially coming back from two losses this season. So I’m just excited that I get to avenge not one but both my losses this weekend.”
For Valencia, who earned his 100th victory as a Sun Devil after beating Lewis in the semi-finals match a night earlier Friday, continues to add accolades to his wrestling career with one year left in Tempe.
Josh Shields and Christian Pagdilao wrestled to a sixth and seventh place finishes respectively for ASU.
Pagdilao, a graduate senior, finishes his career as an All-American for ASU. Shields, a redshirt-junior, will have yet another chance to compete in a Sun Devil uniform next season.
“Really really special journey,” said Pagdilao. “I wasn’t supposed to have this season and to capitalize on an opportunity that I had is a phenomenal feeling.”
With less than a half a year to prepare for this one, Pagdilao was granted a sixth year of eligibility late last summer as he was able to make the most of it by becoming an All-American.
For Shields, wrestling in front of his home town crowd here in Pittsburgh viewed it as an awesome experience and sees this season as a great one for himself but knows he has room to grow before next season comes around.
“It’s hard to not only focus on the results and focus on taking 6th when I’ve had so much growth throughout the season,” said Shields. “I know I’m one of the best in the country. I have the opportunity to win it next year. That’s exactly what I want to do.”
With the season coming to a close, ASU wrestling is a program that is on the rise and will look to build on what they have accomplished as of late. Finishing the 2018-2019 season in 12th place in the nation with 42 team points and three All-Americans for consecutive seasons and three national qualifiers set to return, a two-time National Champion and a group of hungry wrestlers to jump into the action. Expectations will be high next season for the Sun Devils in Tempe.
