Beavers Rout Roadrunners, Stay Unbeaten
The 21sth-ranked Oregon State wrestling team won 9 of 10 matches on Saturday and remained undefeated with a 32-5 Pacific-10 Conference victory over Cal State Bakersfield at Gill Coliseum.
Freshman Ronnie Bresser (125) pinned; redshirt freshman Devin Reynolds (141) and senior Taylor Meeks (184) earned major decisions and redshirt freshman Jack Hathaway (133) and junior Seth Thomas (165) avenged earlier losses. The Beavers (5-0, 4-0 Pac-12) stretched their winning streak to eight consecutive duals over the past two seasons before an appreciative crowd of 719 and a Pac-12 Networks TV audience.
“We won a lot of the close matches,” OSU coach Jim Zalesky said, noting the Beavers were 5-0 in bouts decided by three points or less. “We had some big wins and I liked the way we fought. We have to keep moving in the right direction but I like the way we are wrestling.”
Reynolds had not competed since Dec. 21 due to a groin injury sustained while practicing for the Aloha Open just after Christmas. On Saturday, he got the Beavers off to a flying 4-0 start by earning a bonus point with a 9-0 major decision over Timmy Box.
“It was definitely great,” Reynolds said. “It was a little nerve-wracking but I was excited, felt healthy and was ready to wrestle.
“After not competing for a while, you feel different than it feels practicing in the room, and you have to get your lungs opened up. Getting four points was huge, but I wish I would have had more time,” and possibly won by fall.
“But the bonus points were great. Even though it wasn’t that close of a dual they wrestled tough.”
Added Zalesky:
“[Reynolds] did get us off to a good start. He wrestled hard; started out strong, maybe [tired] in the second period then came on strong. It was nice to get him back.”
Hathaway (133) scored a third-period near-fall to edge Ian Nickell 3-1, thus reversing earlier losses at the Nov. 16 Roadrunner Open (12-3) and the Dec. 6 Cliff Keen Invitational at Las Vegas. Thomas (165) topped Adam Fierro 3-1 to avenge an 11-2 setback at the Cliff Keen meet.
One of two Beavers ranked in this week’s The Open Mat (8) and InterMat (14) polls, Bresser pinned Sean Nickell in 1:18 for his second win in a row since returning to the lineup after also missing the Aloha Open.
Meeks, also ranked by InterMat (7) and The Open Mat (9) whipped Sean Pollock 11-2 to improve to 25-3. He has won five straight matches and is 10-1 in his last 11 overall.
Other OSU winners were Abraham Rodriguez (149); Alex Elder (157); Cody Crawford (197) and Nate Keeve (hwt.).
The Beavers now hit the road for four consecutive nonconference duals. They visit Northern Colorado (Friday), South Dakota State (Jan. 25), Utah Valley State (Jan. 30) and Oklahoma (Feb. 1) before resuming Pac-12 action against Cal Poly on Feb. 7 at Gill Coliseum.
“It’s good to get more than one match in a weekend,”Zalesky said. “We had some good training the last two weeks; now these next four weekends we’ll get two matches,” to help prepare the Beavers for the stretch run at the upcoming Pac-12 (March1) and NCAA (March 19-21) tournaments.
For more on the wrestling team, follow the club’s official Twitter account at Twitter.com/OSU_Wrestling or by Facebook at Facebook.com/OregonStateWrestling.
Saturday’s results:
Oregon State 32, CSU Bakersfield 5
141: Devin Reynolds (OSU) major dec. Timmy Box (CSUB), 9-0
149: Abraham Rodriguez (OSU) dec. Coleman Hammond (CSUB), 6-5
157: Alex Elder (OSU) dec. Spencer Hill (CSUB), 10-3
165: Seth Thomas (OSU) dec. Adan Fierro (CSUB), 3-1
174: Bryce Hammond (CSUB) tech. fall over Joe Latham (OSU), 20-4
184: Taylor Meeks (OSU) major dec. Sean Pollock (CSUB), 11-2
197: Cody Crawford (OSU) dec. Matt Williams (CSUB), 2-0
Hwt.: Nate Keeve 9OSU) dec. Alex Incarnacion-Strand (CSUB), 2-0
125: Ronnie Bresser (OSU) pinned Sean Nickell (CSUB), 1:18
133: Jack Hathaway (OSU) dec, Ian Nickell (CSUB), 3-1