Beavers Set Wrestling Lineup During Intrasquad Meet

The three OSU wrestlers in the preseason national rankings who competed on Thursday all won by wide margins.

Photo: OSU

NEWBERG - Oregon State had five returning starters nail down their spots in this year’s lineup as the Beavers held their annual Intrasquad Meet on Thursday night at Newberg High School. Back in the lineup when OSU opens its season against Portland State on Tuesday at 7:00 PM in Gill Coliseum will be Bobby Pfennigs at 133 pounds, Kyle Larson at 141 pounds, Jeremy Larson at 174 pounds, Kyle Bressler at 184 pounds and Ty Watterson at heavyweight.

Joining them will be 125-pounder Jake Gonzales, 149-pounder Derek Kipperberg, 157-pounder Andy Hall, 165-pounder Brett Arand and 197-pounder Travis Gardner after they also won matches in front of approximately 350 fans in McGrath Gymnasium. That will be the Beavers’ lineup for the meet against PSU and then the Jack Hancock Invitational at Northern Colorado on Nov. 18th, as OSU takes the mat for the first time under new head coach Jim Zalesky.

“The guys wrestled hard,” Zalesky said of the Beavers after the Intrasquad Meet. “They gave seven minutes of hard wrestling. You want to see places where guys can get better, and we saw some things guys can work on in the (practice) room. Tonight we saw good efforts, guys going for falls. It’s just a matter of going week by week and getting better.”

The three OSU wrestlers in the preseason national rankings who competed on Thursday all won by wide margins.

Watterson, a senior ranked No. 7 in the National Wrestling Coaches Association poll and No. 8 by Amateur Wrestling News, took a 7-2 decision over Jamie Rakevich. Watterson was 31-10 with 11 pins last season, placed second in the Pacific-10 and qualified for the NCAA Championships; Rakevich, also a senior, missed last season due to an injury but three years ago had qualified for the NCAA Championships.

Senior 174-pounder Jeremy Larson, ranked No. 20 by the NWCA and No. 12 by AWN, rolled to a 21-7 major decision over junior Ben Harris, a transfer from Southwestern Oregon Community College. Larson, who was the Pac-10 runner-up last season, qualified for the NCAA Championships and went 27-11, put away the match with six takedowns in the final period.

Junior 141-pounder Kyle Larson, ranked No. 20 by AWN, pinned junior Louie Camarillo in 2:10. Last season, Larson placed third in the Pac-10 and qualified for the NCAA Championships, finishing the season with a 26-7 record and four pins.

Pfennigs, a senior, defended his spot in the lineup with a 17-3 major decision over freshman Clifton Ivanoff, who attended Alaska-Fairbanks last year; UAF does not have a wrestling program. Pfennigs, who battled through injuries to go 16-7 with five pins last season and reach the NCAAs, scored a takedown and a trio of two-point near-falls in the first period for an early 8-0 lead.

Bressler, a sophomore, rolled up a 16-7 win over sophomore Kyle Sukanen. Bressler went 5-17 last season and won a match at the Pac-10 Championships.

The night’s tightest match came at 197 pounds, as junior Travis Gardner – OSU’s starter at the weight two years ago – beat Neal Beaudry 6-4 in overtime. Beaudry, a NHS grad wrestling back in his former home gym, took an early 4-1 lead but Gardner rode him for the entire third period to earn a point for riding time, then Gardner scored the winning takedown with six seconds left in the extra period.

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