Oregon State`s Watterson, Larson Seeded at NCAA`s

Watterson is ranked fifth by both the National Wrestling Coaches Association and Amateur Wrestling News magazine.

OSU heavyweight Ty Watterson Photo: OSU Athletics

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Oregon State’s Ty Watterson is seeded fifth at heavyweight and the Beavers’ Jeremy Larson is seeded 11th at 174 pounds for this week’s NCAA Wrestling Championships at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

The tournament begins Thursday and runs through Saturday; 12 wrestlers are seeded at each weight and the top eight wrestlers in each weight class earn All-America honors.

Also representing Oregon State will be 125-pounder Eric Stevenson, 133-pounder Bobby Pfennigs, 149-pounder Derek Kipperberg, 184-pounder Kyle Bressler and 197-pounder Travis Gardner.

Pairings for the tournament were released Monday afternoon and complete brackets can be seen at www.ncaasports.com.

Watterson, who has a 28-4 record with eight pins this season, received a bye in the preliminary round and will open the tournament against Jermail Porter of Kent State in the first round.

Watterson is ranked fifth by both the National Wrestling Coaches Association and Amateur Wrestling News magazine in the latest rankings.

Larson, who has a 29-6 record with five pins this season, received a bye in the preliminary round and will wrestle Nick Kozar of Drexel in the first round. Larson is ranked 14th by the NWCA and 11th by AWN.

Stevenson is 11-3 with four pins this season. He will wrestle unseeded Collin Cudd of Wisconsin in the first round.

Pfennigs is 23-6 with four pins this season. He received a bye in the preliminary round and will wrestle second-seeded Matthew Valenti of Pennsylvania in the first round.

Kipperberg is 19-10 with one pin this season. He will wrestle seventh-seeded Scott Ervin of Appalachian State in the first round.

Bressler is 19-11 with four pins this season. He will wrestle unseeded Shawn Vincent of Northern Colorado in the preliminary round.

Gardner is 20-9 with seven pins this season. He received a bye in the preliminary round and will wrestle unseeded Jeremie Cook of Lock Haven in the first round.

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