Redshirt sophomore heavyweight Amarveer Dhesi was the lone champion for the Beavers, who instead used a balanced attack and bonus points to claim the seventh Pac-12 title of the 10-year Jim Zalesky coaching era.
Dhesi won his quarterfinal and semifinal matches by fall, and then destroyed defending champion Nathan Butler of Stanford 19-5 in the title bout to earn his first conference crown. He took second as a freshman in 2014, and redshirted last season while recovering from knee surgery.
Dhesi, sophomore Ronnie Bresser (125), redshirt junior Joey Delgado (149), senior Seth Thomas (165) and redshirt freshman Corey Griego all earned automatic berths to the NCAA Championships, set for March 17-19 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Also, redshirt junior Joey Palmer (133) placed second and could earn one of the five national at-large berths in that weight class. He was ranked No. 12 in the final NCAA Div. I Wrestling Ratings Percentage Index (RPI).
It will be the second trip to NCAAs for Bresser, Delgado, Thomas and Dhesi, and the first for Griego. It would also be the second trip for Palmer if he is an at-large selection.
"It was a total team effort, in every sense," Zalesky said. "Everybody scored, and we had bonus points," thanks to nine pins or major decisions.
"In the afternoon session we strung three straight pins together," by Delgado, Rodriguez and [Cody] Crawford, "and that was six points right there. All that stuff adds up.
"We would have liked to have had more wins, but we found a way to get it done."
Bresser and Palmer each lost their championship matches in overtime. Bresser lost 3-2 to Connor Schram of Stanford; Palmer fell 4-2 to Dalton Brady of ASU. The other Beaver in the finals, Griego, fell 7-2 to ASU's Blake Stauffer.
Bresser then edged Boise State's Rami Haddadin 7-6 in a second-place challenge match to take true second and advance to NCAAs for the second year in a row.
Delgado (149), redshirt sophomore Abraham Rodriguez (157), Thomas (165) and redshirt sophomore Cody Crawford (197) placed third. Rodriguez is ranked No. 30 and Crawford is ranked 33rd in RPI, so they have an outside chance at best of earning one of the four at-large berths at their weight classes.
For more information on the Oregon State wrestling team, follow the club's official Twitter account at Twitter.com/OSU_Wrestling or by Facebook at Facebook.com/OregonStateWrestling.
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