In addition to Benefiel, individual champions for Oklahoma State included 133-pounder Jordan Oliver, 141-pounder Jamal Parks, 197-pounder Alan Gelogaev and heavyweight Jared Rosholt.
No Cowboy was more overwhelming Sunday than Benefiel, who pinned second-seeded Ryan DesRoches of Cal Poly in the first period of the championship bout. Benefiel hit a fireman's carry early in the bout that led to a five-point move, then cut DesRoches loose before continuing his domination and eventually getting DesRoches into a front headlock, forcing him to back, locking in a cradle and recording a pin just 2:33 in. The title bout was indicative of Benefiel's day as a whole, as the Cowboy sophomore recorded two falls and two major decisions in his conquest of the bracket. Not counting his two falls, Benefiel racked up at least 13 points in each of his bouts in Reno.
At 133 pounds, Oliver's finals matchup with No. 9 Boris Novachkov of Cal Poly started slow but picked up steam as it went on. After a scoreless first period, Oliver mounted up over a minute of riding time before Novachkov wiggled free for the escape and the only point of the second period. Oliver escaped quickly to start the third then added a double-leg takedown to go up, 3-1. A Novachkov escape trimmed Oliver's advantage to 3-2, but when the clock hit zeroes and Oliver's 1:37 riding time advantage was factored in, the Cowboy was a 4-2 winner. Oliver racked up pins in two of his three bouts leading up to the finals, and won the third bout when Eastern Michigan's Sean Clair was disqualified.
Parks won his championship bout over Ohio's Germane Lindsey by medical forfeit. The Tulsa Union graduate punched his ticket into the finals with an impressive win over No. 10 Chris Drouin of Arizona State in the semifinals. After a scoreless first period, Drouin escaped immediately to start the second for the only scoring of that stanza. The third period started with a Parks escape, then the Cowboy sophomore took the Sun Devil All-American down with 1:30 left for the decisive moment of the match. The win was Parks' third straight over a ranked opponent and avenged a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Drouin earlier in the year.
Gelogaev was never in trouble during his 14-5 major decision win over North Carolina's Dennis Drury in the 197-pound title bout, racking up five takedowns and a reversal to claim the crown. Gelogaev posted OSU's quickest pin Sunday when he needed only 19 seconds to dispose of Southern Oregon's John Harrison in the quarterfinals.
Rosholt pinned his first two opponents before claiming decisions over North Carolina's Ziad Haddad in the quarterfinals and Arizona State's Erik Nye in the semifinals. After a scoreless first period, Alcala and Rosholt traded escapes to open the second and third periods, respectively. Both wrestlers had good takedown opportunities in the third, but neither was able to finish their respective attempts and the bout went into overtime deadlocked at one. The first sudden victory period yielded no scoring and Rosholt finally broke the ice when he escaped in the first tiebreak period. He then rode Alcala out to seal his second-straight Reno tournament individual title.
At 125 pounds, senior Chris Notte took third by pinning No. 8 Michael Martinez 3:50 into the consolation final. It was the second time that the underdog Notte recorded bonus points over Martinez Sunday, as Notte was a 13-3 major decision winner over Martinez in the championship quarterfinals. With Notte starting the second period of the third-place bout on top, Martinez tried to sit out, but Notte threw him down onto his back then ended the bout by finishing the pin. Notte came within only moments of earning a spot in the finals, but No. 3 Anthony Robles of Arizona State took Notte down with only eight seconds left in the third period to hand the Cowboy senior a 2-1 defeat in their semifinal bout.
In an interesting matchup in the consolation finals at 149 pounds, junior Quinten Fuentes was pinned by No. 18 Barrett Abel of UC Davis in the second period. The bout was a rematch of Fuentes's win by fall over Abel just two nights earlier in a dual between the Cowboys and the Aggies. Sunday's bout went Abel's way, however, as the Aggie locked up Fuentes's upper-body and threw him down to his back and pinned him. Leading up to the consolation final, Fuentes recorded three pins on the day, most notably over Edinboro's Torsten Gillespie in the consolation semifinal.
Redshirt freshman 165-pounder Alex Meade was one second away from a berth in the championship round, but instead suffered a disappointing defeat at the hands of Penn State's Dan Vallimont in the semifinals. Trailing, 3-2, in the third period, Meade took Vallimont down to go up 4-3. Vallimont, however, was able to escape with only one second remaining to even the score. Making the escape even more significant is the fact that when the clock hit zeroes, Meade had 59 seconds of riding time. Nevertheless, the two wrestlers went into overtime, where Meade sealed his own fate when he was slapped with two different penalty points for false starts. He then suffered an injury in his consolation bout and was forced to injury default
The Pokes return to action when they host Cal Poly at 7 p.m. on Jan. 2 at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
Final Team Standings (Top 10 teams only)
1. Oklahoma State - 154 points
2. Edinboro - 85.5 points
3. Penn State - 83 points
T4. Arizona State - 77 points
T4. Ohio - 77 points
6. Cal Poly - 70.5 points
7. Wyoming - 69.5 points
8. Boise State - 57 points
9. North Carolina - 54 points
10. Cal State Fullerton - 50.5 points
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now