No. 18 Oregon State Wins Wrestling Civil War

Photo: OSU Athletics

EUGENE - Brett Arand and Travis Gardner both earned pins while Eric Stevenson and Keegan Davis both won by major decision as the 18th-ranked Oregon State wrestling team destroyed Oregon, 35-7, to take the season sweep of the rival schools.

“With tonight’s match and the two meets this weekend, we’re really looking toward two weeks down the road at the Pac-10s,” OSU Coach Jim Zalesky said. “We’re definitely getting people healthy and ready to wrestle down there.”

Oregon State’s win evens the overall score with Oregon (6-12, 1-8 Pac-10) at 6-6 in the Civil War Series, presented by the Northwest Dodge Dealers.

The remaining points yet to be determined are in men’s basketball, men’s golf, women’s golf and softball.

The Beavers (15-2, 7-1 Pac-10) used a strong second half to pull away from the struggling Ducks.

Arand started the first period of the match by almost getting pinned by opponent Jake McCoy in the 165-pound match.

McCoy earned a two-point takedown and nearly pinned Arand before time expired in the first period.

Arand, however, came right back in the second and pinned McCoy with one minute left in the period to give the Beavers a 17-7 lead. The 12-point swing was enough for OSU to take the lead for good.

“I just saw that I was out of bounds, wasn’t too worried, but I just didn’t like being on my back,” Arand said. “I got into a little scramble in the second period and I saw him being lazy so I tossed him over, dropped him on his back, and that was it.”

Another six points followed for Oregon State with a forfeit in the 174 pound division, giving Jeremy Larson his 24th win of the season.

184-pounder Kyle Bressler took Oregon’s Brysen French into overtime and used a two-point takedown to seal the victory, 4-2.

Travis Gardner continued the Beavers’ strong momentum by pinning Duck freshman Chris Robertson with 22 seconds left in the second period.

Heavyweight Ty Watterson, ranked first in the conference and in the top six nationally in both NWCA and AWN polls, dominated Chris Dearmon, 8-2, to give the Beavers their eighth individual victory to conclude the team scoring.

“The win in overtime was big for Kyle, and you definitely need those close wins because otherwise the meet can go the other way if you don’t get those,” Zalesky said.

Oregon State wrestled without starters Bobby Pfennigs at 133 pounds and nationally ranked Kyle Larson at 141 pounds.

Eric Stevenson, who usually wrestles at 125 pounds, was bumped up to 133 pounds to replace Pfennigs and easily defeated Joey Lucas, 19-7.

The senior from Newberg, Oregon, who qualified for the NCAA meet last season, has battled injuries this season but has bounced back to earn his sixth win of the year.

“We’ve had some guys banged up lately so we had some guys step up,” Zalesky said. “That’s what you have to do, when some guys go down, some other guys have to step up.”

Freshman Clifton Ivanoff stepped in for Kyle Larson in the 141-pound match, but fell to Oregon senior Justin Pearch, 19-7, giving the Ducks its second individual match win out of the first three on the night.

125-pounder Jake Gonzales opened the night with a 7-2 loss against Ryan Dunn, giving the Ducks an early 3-0 in the team score.

Although the Ducks grabbed individual wins in two of the first three matches, the Beavers would go on to win the final seven, en route to a convincing victory.

“It just shows that we’re a strong team and we can win without some guys and still do good,” Arand said.

Down 7-4 in the team score, OSU senior Derek Kipperberg stopped the Ducks’ momentum by using a two-point takedown in the second period to defeat Jeremy McLaughlin, 6-3, to give the Beavers the team lead for good.

Freshman Keegan Davis concluded the first half of wrestling by earning a major decision over Kyle Bounds, 9-1.

The Beavers will come home and conclude the regular season on Sunday at noon against Pac-10 foe Stanford and then North Dakota State in a non-conference match at 2:00 PM. With a pair of wins, OSU will go undefeated at home for the second straight season.

NO. 18 OREGON STATE 35, AT OREGON 7

(Current Amateur Wrestling News national rankings in parentheses)

125 – Ryan Dunn, UO, dec. Jake Gonzales, OSU, 7-2. 133 – Eric Stevenson, OSU, major dec. Joey Lucas, UO, 17-4. 141 – Justin Pearch, UO, major dec. Clifton Ivanoff, OSU, 19-7. 149 – Derek Kipperberg, OSU, dec. Jeremy McLaughlin, UO, 6-3. 157 – Keegan Davis, OSU, major dec. Kyle Bounds, UO, 9-1. 165 – Brett Arand, OSU, pinned Jake McCoy, UO, 4:00. 174 – (20) Jeremy Larson, OSU, by forfeit. 184 – Kyle Bressler, OSU, dec. Brysen French, UO, 4-2 OT. 197 – Travis Gardner, OSU, pinned Chris Robertson, UO, 3:22. HWT – (4) Ty Watterson, OSU, dec. Chris Dearmon, UO, 8-2.

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