Wrestling wraps season with win at home

The Arizona State University wrestling team wrapped up the 2011-12 regular season with a win over conference rival Stanford, 22-15, at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Ariz., on Sunday. 

The Sun Devils (7-10, 3-2 Pac-12) earned victories in six of the 10 weight classes on Senior Day, pulling away from the Cardinal (8-7, 3-2 Pac-12) to win its second consecutive dual and build some momentum heading into the championship season.

Kevin Radford started a string of three consecutive victories to start the dual with a 5-3 decision over Mark Phillips to give ASU the 3-0 lead 

The victory prefaced redshirt freshman Chace Eskam’s first career victory in an exciting bout at 197 pounds against Stanford’s Alan Yen.  Yen had a late escape in the third to tie the match at five and send it to overtime.  In the sudden death overtime, the match was largely a stalemate until Eskam got position late and scored a takedown for the win to put ASU up 6-0.

At heavyweight, junior Levi Cooper kept fans on their feet as he and Stanford Dan Scherer also headed to overtime.  After a scoreless sudden death period, Cooper was able to ride out Scherer in the first 30-second overtime and scored a quick escape in the second for the 3-2 victory and a 9-0 edge in the dual. 

At 125 pounds, senior David Prado competed in his final dual at Wells Fargo Arena, falling to Matt Sencenbaugh but was able to hold the Cardinal to just a decision in the 8-1 loss as Stanford brought it to 9-3.

Redshirt freshman Shane McGough worked his magic at that point, pinning Stanford’s Jordan Bryan at the buzzer of the second frame.  The win put ASU back on top 15-3 at the midway point.  It was McGough 16^th victory of the season and his seventh pin, leading all Sun Devils.  McGough has scored 11 of his 16 victories with bonus points this year and his fourth pin in front of the home crowd.

Fellow redshirt freshman Nathan Hoffer kept the momentum going as he dominated Alex Manley to the tune of a 9-1 major decision for his 17^th victory of the season and giving the Sun Devils the 19-3 edge through six matches. 

Joel Smith, also a redshirt freshman, put the dual away with a 10-5 decision over Josh Lauderdale to put ASU up by 19 with three duals left.

ASU dropped three major decisions to close out the match at 157, 165 and 174 pounds – the last of which saw Eric Starks fall to top-ranked Nick Amuchastegui in both seniors final dual competitions of their careers - but because the Sun Devils were able to pull away early, the match was never in question.

The Sun Devils will now have about three weeks off to prepare for the Pac-12 Championships, set to take place in Boise, Idaho, beginning on Feb. 26.