No. 19 Oregon State Duals ASU, Boise State This Weekend

The Beavers are coming off a pair of non-conference wins last weekend, winning at Wyoming 32-6 and at Northern Colorado 25-12

OSU 149-pounder Derek Kipperberg. Photo: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS - Oregon State will get a chance to find out how it stacks up against a pair of conference championship caliber programs this weekend at Gill Coliseum.

The 19th-ranked Beavers will wrestle the two schools who, between them, have won the last seven Pacific-10 championships -- Arizona State and Boise State, with ASU having taken the past two titles.

OSU (11-1 overall, 3-0 Pac-10) takes on Arizona State (5-9, 2-1) Friday at 7:00 PM and Boise State (4-2, 2-1) on Sunday at noon.

“They’re important for us,” OSU head coach Jim Zalesky said. “We want to say, ‘We’re going to make our mark, too -- Oregon State is going to be in there battling for the Pac-10 title, too, right now.

“The next four dual meets are against teams that should be in contention for the Pac-10 title -- Arizona State, Boise State, California-Davis (on Feb. 2nd, away) and Cal Poly (on Feb. 4th, away). These next four meets are an important chance to see where we are and where we need to go for the rest of the year.”

This weekend’s duals will feature a number of matchups between wrestlers in this week’s Pac-10 rankings.

The conference rankings, which include six wrestlers at each weight, were shaken up this week and one result was OSU’s Kyle Bressler jumping to the top spot at 184 pounds.

At 133 pounds, BSU’s Levi Jones is ranked second and OSU’s Bobby Pfennigs is fourth; at 141 pounds, OSU’s Kyle Larson is ranked second and ASU’s Pat Payne is ranked sixth; at 149 pounds, OSU’s Derek Kipperberg is ranked third and Boise State’s Tommy Owen is ranked fourth.

At 157 pounds, ASU’s Brian Stith is ranked first, BSU’s Tyler Sherfey is ranked fourth and OSU’s Keegan Davis is ranked fifth;

At 174 pounds, OSU’s Jeremy Larson is ranked second and BSU’s Nate Lee is ranked third; at 184 pounds, OSU’s Bressler is ranked first, ASU’s Greg Gifford is ranked second and BSU’s Mike Casperson is ranked sixth.

At 197 pounds, ASU's Jason Trulson is ranked second and OSU’s Travis Gardner is fourth; and at heavyweight, OSU’s Ty Watterson is second and BSU’s Andy Patrick is third.

The Beavers continue to have three wrestlers in the national rankings, as Watterson is ranked 15th in the National Wrestling Coaches Association poll and 12th by Amateur Wrestling News; Jeremy Larson is ranked 18th in the NWCA poll and 17th by AWN; and Kyle Larson is ranked 19th in the NWCA poll.

Also appearing in the Pac-10 rankings for the Beavers is Jake Gonzales, who is tied for third at 125 pounds.

Arizona State split a pair of dual meets last weekend, beating Cal State-Bakersfield 19-18 at home and then losing 38-4 at Cornell.

The Sun Devils have two nationally ranked wrestlers, as 157-pounder Stith is ranked fifth in the NWCA poll and fourth by AWN, and 165-pounder Patrick Pitsch is ranked 16th by AWN.

Boise State had one meet last weekend, winning at Wyoming 26-12.

The Broncos have two nationally ranked wrestlers, as 157-pounder Sherfey is ranked 15th in the NWCA poll and 19th by AWN, and heavyweight Patrick is ranked seventh in the NWCA poll and fifth by AWN.

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