Oregon State came in to the tournament needing a strong team effort, and that is what they got this weekend.  The team placed eight wrestlers in the top 4, and every man in the top 5 to bring the championship by two points over Boise State. Cal Poly was 3rd, after having a great tournament and being the first day leader.

Oregon State overcame a sluggish first session to put four wrestlers into the finals in session two.  Cal Poly put five wrestlers into the finals to lead after day 1. BSU placed three into the championship bout. Day two was set up to finish as a three team race, with several key head to head match-ups between the three teams.  

In the finals, Boise State won  two of the three, including Adam Hall's victory over Cal Poly wrestler Chase Pami.  Kirk Smith had a fall to get valuable points, but Oregon State had taken command after Colby Covington defeated BSU wrestler Nate Lee at 174 lbs. OSU won key 3rd place matches at 133 and 141, and when Matt Casperson defeated Chad Hanke by decision for 3rd place, OSU had won the team championship.

Overall, it was a great Pac 10 tournament, every team won at least one individual championship.  Cal State Bakersfield came ready to wrestle as well, putting three wrestlers into the finals and taking home two individual championships.  They wore black warm-up sweats and black singlets, rather than their traditional blue and gold school colors.  The Bakersfield administration informed the team and public two weeks ago that they would be cutting the program at the end of this year. The Roadrunner coaches and athletes, as well as wrestling community are still hopeful that they can save the program.

Individual winners were:  Anthony Robles-ASU, Boris Novatchkov-Cal Poly, Adin Duenas-Fullerton, Barrett Abel- UC Davis, Adam Hall- BSU, Nick Amuchastegui- Stanford, Colby Covington-OSU, Kirk Smith-BSU, Riley Orozco-Bakersfield, Mitch Monteiro-Bakersfield.

Adin Duenas (141) was named the tournament outstanding wrestler after winning the very tough 141 lb. weight class.

LCW heads to a few tourneys this weekend for coverage. UC Davis is the site of the 2010 Pac 10 Championships and we are there.  We will also be on hand for the 2010 Oregon High School State Championships, live from Portland, Oregon.

Stay tuned for our coverage of the great action.

Arizona State showed some good signs against the #2 team in NCAA, but came up short on Sunday.  ASU was able to win three of the ten bouts, but lost 30-10 to the Cyclones.

Anthony Robles trailed Andrew Long by a 10-2 margin, before going to work on top.  Robles scored three sets of nearfall points to earn a hard fought 12-10 victory at 125 lbs. Also winning for the Devils were Chris Drouin at 141, over #13 Dalton Jensen. Jake Meredith got the win at 184 for ASU. 

Vincente Varella came up a point short to nationally ranked Mitch Mueller at 149, falling 3-2. Eric Nye also dropped a 4-1 decision to highly ranked heavyweight David Zabriskie.

For the Cyclones, the win marked the 1000th victory in school history. They became the first school to gain this feat.

The matches were split 5-5, but Cal Poly pulled the dual out on bonus points on Friday night.  It was only the second time that the Mustangs have defeated the Sun Devils in the last 20 meetings.  Cal Poly, ranked #16, hosts #18 Oregon State tonight, in a big Pac 10 matchup.  Oregon State is riding a 16 match winning streak.

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/sports/story/1018182.html

The competition schedule is busy once again this coming week.  Lots of teams are right back in action, and many are getting heavily  into their conference dual season.  We have a summary of what is going on out west this week in college wrestling, and also for western teams on the road. 


Wednesday, January 13
North Idaho at Yakima Valley CC
North Idaho vs. Highline CC at Yakima, Wash.
Mesa State at Nebraska-Kearney

Thursday, January 14
Adams State at Chadron State
Southern Oregon at San Francisco State
Mesa State at Fort Hays State
North Idaho at SW Oregon CC
Cal Poly at San Francisco State
Cal Poly vs. Southern Oregon at San Francisco, Calif.


Friday, January 15
Adams State at Colorado School of Mines
Boise State vs. North Dakota State at Bozeman, Mont.
North Idaho at Clackamas CC
Northern Colorado at Wyoming
UC Davis at Oregon State
Cal Baptist at Grand Canyon
Cal Baptist vs. CSU-Pueblo at Phoenix, Ariz.
CSU-Pueblo at Grand Canyon


Saturday, January 16
Cal Baptist vs. Great Falls at Prescott, Ariz.
Cal Baptist vs. Simon Fraser at Prescott, Ariz.
Cal Baptist vs. Southern Oregon at Prescott, Ariz.
CSU-Pueblo at Embry-Riddle
Eastern Michigan vs. Stanford at East Lansing, Mich.
Great Falls at Embry-Riddle
Nebraska-Kearney vs. New Mexico Highlands at Grand Prairie, Texas
New Mexico Highlands vs. Newman at Grand Prairie, Texas
Utah Valley vs. Arizona State at Grand Prairie, Texas
Harvard vs. Arizona State at Grand Prairie, Texas
Harvard vs. Utah Valley at Grand Prairie, Texas
Air Force vs. Arizona State at Grand Prairie, Texas
Air Force vs. Northwestern at Grand Prairie, Texas
Brown vs. Air Force at Grand Prairie, Texas
Brown vs. Utah Valley at Grand Prairie, Texas
Western State at Grand Canyon
Clackamas Open- Oregon City, Oregon
Menlo at Embry-Riddle
Stanford at Michigan State

Sunday, January 17
Cal State-Bakersfield at Oregon State
Stanford at Central Michigan
Wyoming at Nebraska

The rise of the east and the demise of the west was what Roger Moore of WIN magazine alluded to in the recent column.  The column pointed more to the Pac 10 than the WWC  which UVU competes in, but generally speaking Moore's perception was that the east and west sides of the U.S. are heading in opposite directions when it comes to collegiate wrestling. Somebody forgot to tell the west that they were supposed to start the season by bowing down to the eastern teams and the more traditional powers of the midwest.  Utah Valley, a first year NCAA eligible team, won their third dual of the east coast swing in as many tries. The Wolverines were able to take 7 of the 10 bouts to win 26-10.

Earlier today, Cal Poly defeated #8 Missouri. These wins coupled with Stanford going 3-0 at the Northwestern duals last weekend should have a few people at least questioning the notion that the west is all but dead when it comes to wrestling. Stanford last week beat Northwestern, Purdue and Northern Iowa. 

ASU appears to be gaining a little steam, and BSU looks set for another strong campaign.  Oregon State looks to be gaining steam and will wrestle Wisconsin and Boise State this weekend.  Mark Branch is moving Wyoming in a good direction. Just maybe, the west is on the positive upswing.  Scores for the UVU-N.C. State dual are below.

Utah Valley 26, NC State 10
133 - Darrius Little (NCS) dec. Flint Ray, 10-7
141 - Dale Shull (NCS) major dec. Marty Carlson, 9-0
149 - Justin Morrill (UVU) injury def. Colton Palmer at 3:00
157 - Bobby Ward (NCS) dec. Richard Winger, 11-8
165 - Monte Schmalhaus (UVU) dec. Kasey Young, 12-5
174 - Brad Darrington (UVU) dec. Quinton Godley, 4-2 sv2
184 - Casen Eldredge (UVU) major dec.Jonathan Becker, 9-1
197 - Josh Woods (UVU) dec. Andrew Tumlin , 9-8
Hwt - Dylan Stadel (UVU) dec. Bobby Isola, 3-2
125 - #11 Ben Kjar (UVU) major dec. Taylor Cummings, 15-3

The LCW Athlete of the Week (for the week ending November 15th), is Anthony Robles of Arizona State University. Robles had another typical week last weekend, winning two matches by technical fall.  He disposed of Mark Jay Acosta of UC Davis by a score of 20-3.  He then followed it up later in the weekend by dismantling Fullerton's Andre Gonzales by a 22-5 margin in 6:18.

More importantly, the #3 ranked Robles  helped his team get off to a strong start.  The Sun Devils destroyed UC Davis by a score of 38-6, before shutting down Fullerton by an equally impressive 37-4 victory.  First year coach Shawn Charles appears to have the Devils moving in a positive direction, just a  little over a year since the university attempted to drop wrestling as a varsity sport. The attempt was thwarted by supporters and it now seems ASU is poised to re-strengthen their storied program.

ASU got off to good lead and never looked back in their dual against Cal State Fullerton. The Devils had a strong weekend overall, following up their win against UC Davis. ASU knocked off Fullerton by a 37-3 margin. Results are below.

http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/m-wrestl/recaps/111509aaa.html

UC Davis wrestled without a full strength lineup and it showed. The Shawn Charles era got off to a good start in early season Pac 10 action.UC Davis was not with their full compliment of starters, but ASU wrestled well regardless. Full results are below.

http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-wrestl/recaps/111409aaa.html

As confirmations of participants start to come in for the November 22nd Classic, a few western wrestlers are set to compete.  At 125 lbs., Anthony Robles of Arizona State will face off against Zach Sanders of Minnesota.  Also, Nick Gallick of Iowa State (from Sunnyside HS in Tuscon) will compete at 141 lbs. against Alex Krom of Maryland. 

Both Robles and Gallick start the year ranked at #2 in the nation.  Both are natives of Arizona, which just about didn't even have a Division 1 wrestling team, until ASU reinstated their program after briefly dropping it in the summer of 2008.

The All Star Classic once again has special meaning for some this year, as it is being used to help a fundraising campaign for the Cal Sate Fullerton wrestling program.  The program has been alerted that they need to raise funds to stay in existence on a long term basis.