ASU Wrestling takes third at 2013 Pac-12 tournament
The Arizona State University wrestling team wrapped up an eventful day of competition with a third-place finish at the 2013 Pac-12 Wrestling Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Ariz., on Saturday evening.
Three Sun Devils were able to secure their positions the final rounds of the tournament-Kevin Radford, Blake Stauffer, and Jake Meredith- improving from last year's finals qualifier. Each finished as the tournament runner-up.
Arizona State totaled 110.5 points, finishing behind second-place Boise State's 136.5 and champion Oregon State's 158.0 - their second-consecutive conference title.
The Sun Devils will return to action at the 2013 NCAA Championships beginning March 21 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Complete recaps of each of the day's sessions can be found below
FINALS RECAP
Senior heavyweight Levi Cooper came up victorious in his second overtime match of the day, defeating Dan Scherer of Stanford to secure the third place title. Boise State's JT Felix upset Cooper in the opening session of today's tournament after a double overtime thriller.
Top-seeded Jake Meredith was unable to clinch the title after a 4-0 loss to No. 2 Taylor Meeks of Oregon State. Meredith, who in is final year at Arizona State, competed in a post match wrestle off against Boise State's Codey Dixon, securing his bid to the NCAA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, with a 1-0 victory.
The remaining finals competitors, Blake Stauffer and Kevin Radford also came up short in their matches, falling 10-4 and 3-1 respectively.
Sophomore Nathan Hoffer nabbed third place at 149 pounds with a shutout win (4-0) over Stanford's Timmy Boone.
No. 4-seed Matt Kraus fell short in his bid for third place, giving up a late takedown to Boise State's Travis Himmelman and settled for fourth-place.
Dalton Miller was able to secure the fifth place title at 125 pounds with a solid 15-6 win over Rami Haddadin from Boise State.
Joel Smith earned the fifth place title for the 157-weight class over Kyle Chene of Cal Poly with a final score of 6-4.
Ares Carpio took the forfeit win over No. 2 Ian Nickle of CSU Bakersfield after an injury sidelined the wrestler.
Newcomer Codey Combs came up short in his third-place match, falling by a score of 4-2 Holden Packard of Boise State in just his second career appearance at 165 pounds.
SESSION II RECAP
Arizona State would close the second session in third place with 102.5 points with three additional wins in the consolation semi-final round.
Fourth-seeded Matt Kraus would take on Stanford's Josh Lauderdale in the consolation semis in the 141-weight class. Kraus led 2-0 after the first period, and would dominate from then on and end the match with a 12-4 decision.
Kraus would continue to the consolation finals to wrestle for the third place position.
Nathan Hoffer continued that dominance to come up with a win over Dillen Rocha of Cal Poly in a 10-3 decision.
Freshman Codey Combs came up victorious against Cal Poly's Connor King with a major decision win (11-1)
In one of the closest matches for ASU in the consolation semi-finals, Joel Smith fell short against Stanford's Kyle Meyer in a 7-5 decision. Smith trailed 3-0 in the second, but answered with two takedowns and taking the lead, 4-3.
Smith struggled with Meyer up until the final seconds of the match, giving up two takedowns but scoring on an escape but that came just a little late for the sophomore.
Dalton Miller fell to fourth-seed Britain Longmire from Cal Poly, 11-6, in the consolation semi-finals while 133-weight class wrestler Ares Carpio dropped his match to fourth-seed Drew Van Anrooy of Oregon State, 18-3.
SESSION I RECAP
Top-seeded Jake Meredith came out with energy against Cal Poly's JT Goodwin, immediately scoring two points to get things started. Meredith would ultimately dominate (12-0), scoring a major decision and getting the first points on the board for the Sun Devils.
Meredith continued on to the semi-final round where he would take on Stanford's Michael Sojka. The first two periods were scoreless until an escape by Meredith led to a takedown by the Sun Devil. Meredith took the match, 5-0, advancing to the finals.
After receiving a bye in the first round, top-seeded Blake Stauffer also secured a finals spot in the 174-weight class after the 4-2 win over Cody Weishoff of Oregon State. In addition to advancing to the finals round, the win clinched Stauffer a spot in the NCAA Championships.
Kevin Radford also advanced to the final round after his defeat over Sean Dougherty of Cal Poly. Radford led 5-0 after a pair of takedowns and an escape before the end of the first period. Radford would ultimately take the victory, 13-3, earning a much-needed major decision for the Sun Devils.
Heavyweight competitor Levi Cooper defeated Sammy Cervantes of CSU Bakersfield, 6-0, after three takedowns by the senior heading into the third period.
Cooper then faced Boise State's JT Felix for one of the most exciting rounds of session one. Cooper and Felix were neck-and-neck tied at 2-2 at the end of regulation after a Cooper escape, forcing them into the tournament's first OT match. In a dramatic turn of events, Felix sacrificed a point by choosing neutral but Cooper was promptly called with a stalling call to even the score at 3-3.
Felix was able to score a takedown with ten seconds left, sealing the 5-3 upset victory while dropping Cooper down to the consolation round.
Matt Kraus kept things close early with top-seeded Mike Mangrum of Oregon State, tying the score 2-2 after a quick escape. However, Mangrum responded with a double-leg takedown, so set up an eventual major decision (2-13) for the Beavers.