Wrestling suffers second road loss to Iowa State

Chris Drouin and Erik Nye both won major decisions and Vicente Varela added a victory of his own, but it was not enough as the Arizona State University wrestling team dropped a 24-11 decision at No. 2 Iowa State Sunday night at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa. The Sun Devils slipped to 2-2 overall on the season while the Cyclones improved to 3-0.

The dual opened at 125 pounds with the only battle of nationally ranked competitors on the night as No. 11 Tyler Clark scored a 9-3 decision over ASU’s No. 8 Anthony Robles to stake the host Cyclones to a 3-0 lead. No. 5 Nick Fanthorpe added to ISU’s lead with his 22-5 technical fall over Tyler Bowles at 133 pounds.

Trailing 8-0 in the team race, the Sun Devils got on the board as No. 8 Drouin scored a 16-5 major decision over Joey DeMarie at 141 pounds, cutting the deficit in half. Varela followed that with a decision win over his own, 10-3, over Dalton Jensen, bringing ASU to within one point at 8-7.

But, the Cyclones would go on to win the next five bouts to secure the team victory. Nate Carr, Jr., won a 10-3 decision over ASU’s Jerrad Trulson at 157 pounds before No. 3 Jon Reader handed Kyle DeBerry at 16-7 major decision loss. True freshman Eric Starks put up a strong fight against No. 9 Dave Burk at 174, but fell, 8-4, before another true freshman, Jake Meredith made his collegiate debut at 184 pounds. In the bout, Meredith nearly defeated Jerome Wade, but gave up a takedown in over time to fall, 6-4. Joe Curran scored an 8-3 decision over ASU’s Thor Moen at 197 to put the team score at 24-7 with one bout remaining.

In the final bout of the night, Nye scored the Sun Devils’ second major decision victory of the evening, defeating Kyle Simonson, 8-0. The three wins by ASU were their only three on the weekend after being shut out at No. 1 Iowa on Friday night after shutting out Portland State last week.

The Sun Devils return home next Sunday at 2 p.m. when they play host to their intrastate rivals, Embry-Riddle, inside Wells Fargo Arena.

No. 2 Iowa State (3-0, 0-0 Big XII) defeated Arizona State (2-2, 2-0 Pac-10), 24-11
Sunday, November 23, 2008 • Hilton Coliseum • Ames, Iowa
125 - #11 Tyler Clark (IS) decision #8 Anthony Robles, 9-3
133 - #5 Nick Fanthorpe (IS) tech fall Tyler Bowles, 22-5 (6:55)
141 - #8 Chris Drouin (AS) major decision Joey DeMarie, 16-5
149 - Vicente Varela (AS) decision Dalton Jensen, 10-3
157 - Nate Carr, Jr. (IS) decision Jerrad Trulson, 10-3
165 - #3 Jon Reader (IS) major decision Kyle DeBerry, 16-7
174 - #9 Dave Burk (IS) decision Eric Starks, 8-4
184 - Jerome Ward (IS) decision Jake Meredith, 6-4 sv
197 - Joe Curran (IS) decision Thor Moen, 8-3
285 - Erik Nye (AS) major decision Kyle Simonson, 8-0