Boise State entered the conference tournament with four No. 1 seeds, but will only be represented by two in Saturday's championship round. Juniors Adam Hall (157 pounds) and Kirk Smith (184) both managed to stay perfect on day-one of competition, although the two wrestlers did so in very different fashion.
Smith rolled through his first two matches starting with a win by fall (1:33) against Rory Mcbryde of UC Davis in the opening round. He followed that up with a 9-1 major decision against Jake Meredith of Arizona State. Smith is now set to meet Michael Larson of Cal State Bakersfield Saturday evening for the Pac-10 title.
Hall also easily advanced through the first round of the tournament with a win by fall (4:37) against Steven DeLaFuente of Cal State Fullerton. Hall's second match wouldn't be so easy, however, as he needed one point for riding time advantage to pull out a 6-5 win over Tejovan Edwards (Arizona State) in the semifinal round.
After entering the third period trailing 4-3, Hall quickly scored a two point take down to regain his lead heading into the final moments of the match. Edwards wouldn't quit, however, as he scored a one point escape with just 00:24 left in regulation. As Edwards fought hard for a last second take down, Hall managed to hold him off and secure the advantage point with 2:30 of riding time accumulated.
Hall will meet Chase Pami of Cal Poly in the 157-pound title match on Saturday. Hall is looking to avenge a loss to Pami last season, as Pami knocked off Hall in the 2009 Pac-10 Championship match.
With their wins, Hall and Smith join senior Nate Lee who also advanced to the 174-pound championship match after a 7-6 win over Ryan DesRoches of Cal Poly in the semifinals. Lee advanced to the semifinals with a 15-6 major decision against Trevor Hall (CSU Bakersfield) in the opening round.
Lee is the two-time defending Pac-10 Champion. He will meet Colby Covington of Oregon State in the championship round.
Unfortunately for the Broncos, it wasn't all smiles after the first day of tournament action. No. 1 seeds Levi Jones and Jason Chamberlain both saw their Pac-10 title runs come to an end, suffering heartbreaking losses in dramatic fashion Friday evening.
After winning his first match of the day by fall, Jones suffered a loss by 3-1 decision in overtime to Adin Duenas of Cal State Fullerton at 141 pounds. After wrestling to a 1-1 tie at the end of regulation, it appeared as though Jones would take Duenas to a second extra period. With just 00:02 left on the clock, however, Adin scored a two point take down to earn the 3-1 win.
Chamberlain followed immediately afterwards in the 149-pound semifinal match. Despite winning his first match of the day by major decision Chamberlain couldn't overcome Cal Poly's Nick Fisher, who scored a win by fall (4:24) with just 00:36 seconds remaining in the second period.
As a team, Boise State still has nine wrestlers that will be competing on Saturday. Tournament action will resume at 12:00 p.m. (PST), with the championship rounds scheduled now to begin at 4:00 p.m. The Broncos currently sit in third in the team rankings with 97.5 points. Cal Poly is in No. 1 with 108.5 points and Oregon State is second with 102 points.
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