Oregon State (Photo/(Photo/Dave Nishitani, OSU Athletics)“We competed hard and we competed well,” Zalesky said. “We only had two guys who were at Pac-12’s last year, we had [eight] new guys and you never know how they are going to react to that situation. They did a great job.”
Freshman Ronnie Bresser (125), redshirt freshman Jack Hathaway (133), seniors Alex Elder (157), senior Joe Latham (174) and redshirt freshman Cody Crawford (197) all captured their first conference titles, and the resulting NCAA berths.
Latham was also named the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the championships. Seeded fourth at 174, he won three straight matches to capture the title, defeating the No. 1 and No. 3 seeds in the process.
“That’s great,” Zalesky said. “That’s the best he’s wrestled all year. He saved it for this tournament, and this is the time to do it.
“He’s been close. Today he wrestled seven minutes hard the whole time,” and earned a repeat trip to NCAAs.
Two others advanced by taking second, giving the Beavers seven NCAA qualifiers overall.
Fifth-seeded Seth Thomas (165) placed second after withdrawing from the title bout with a knee injury after knocking off the second- and third-seeded opponents in his first two matches. His NCAA berth was safe because he defeated both third-place finalists en route to the finals.
“We knew he was going to go to NCAAs, so we said, let’s not get it worse,” Zalesky said.
Senior 184-pounder Taylor Meeks defeated Stanford’s Zach Nevills 5-0 in the true second-place match after losing the title match. They faced off because they did not meet during Meek’s path to the championship match. An All-American in 2013, Meeks has now qualified for four consecutive NCAAs.
The Beavers went 16-2 in the first two rounds and wrestlebacks and took a commanding 122.5-97 lead over Arizona State heading into the championship round. They won 24 of 31 matches overall and 24 of 30 not counting Thomas’ medical forfeit.
Several of the wins that advanced Beavers to the championship bouts were last-second thrillers.
At 165 pounds, Thomas maintained control over No. 2-seeded Chris Castillo of Boise State to preserve a 4-3 semifinal victory. The fifth-seeded Thomas pinned No. 3 seed Adam Fierro of CSU Bakersfield in the first round.
At 174 pounds, Latham got a takedown just before the buzzer to edge No. 1-seeded Ray Waters of Arizona State, 9-8, to earn a finals berth.
At 197, Crawford took down Boise State’s Cody Dixon in the closing seconds for a 5-4 comeback win and a ticket to the finals, where he pinned his way to St. Louis.
“Those matches gave us huge momentum,” Zalesky said.
Total attendance was 4,229: 1,961 for the morning session and 2,268 for the championship round.
Chase Eskom of ASU was named the Pac-12’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year. No one had more than one pin so Boise State’s Dixon won the award for the quickest fall, 21 seconds.
Stanford (100) took third, followed by Boise State (85.5), CSU Bakersfield (81) and Cal Poly (77).
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