In the team race, the Sun Devils earned 107 points for second place behind defending champion Oregon State, who amassed 139.5 points. ASU improved on last year’s fourth-place finish, and this is the highest finish for the Sun Devils since they won the 2006 team title.
“There are some mixed feelings, since you always want to see all your athletes win and all your athletes get bids to the NCAA meet,” head coach Zeke Jones said. “Some guys fell on the sword today, which is always tough, but there were definitely a lot of positives with a pair of Pac-12 titles and our best finish since 2006. It shows we’re moving in the right direction. We’re not where we want to be yet, but when you look at our future, you expect the freshmen to perform just as well as the veterans, and Christian Pagdilao met that expectation for us today. He wrestled tough in the finals and was really determined to win that bout. It was great for Blake Stauffer to win his first title, and now we have to keep him on track for NCAAs.”
Pagdilao claimed ASU’s first individual title since Anthony Robles (125) and Jake Meredith (184) in 2011 as he defeated Oregon State’s Abraham Rodriguez in a 7-4 decision in the 149-pound final bout. Rodriguez was the only 149-pounder Pagdilao hadn’t wrestled against during the dual match season.
In his first-round bout, the Redlands, Calif., native defeated Cal Poly’s Blake Kastl with the same score he used in the dual match on Feb. 16, 2-0, and then defeated Stanford’s Garrett Schaner, 4-2, in the semifinals.
He is ASU’s first conference champion at 149 pounds since Erik Larkin won the title in 2003.
Stauffer earned the second Pac-12 title of the night as he defeated Oregon State’s Taylor Meeks for the third time this season, this time with a 3-1 decision. As he extended his win streak to 24 straight bouts, Stauffer pinned CSUB’s Sean Pollock in 1:33 in the first round, and then took down Stanford’s Zach Nevills in a 6-3 decision in the semifinals.
Both Pagdilao and Stauffer earned automatic bids to compete at the 2015 NCAA Wrestling Championships, March 19-21, in St. Louis, Mo.
Three more Sun Devils earned automatic bids to the national meet, junior Ares Carpio (125), junior Matt Kraus (141), and sophomore Oliver Pierce (157).
Carpio placed third before taking part in the bout for true second place, where he defeated Stanford’s Evan Silver in a 7-3 decision, good for the 40th win of his career.
Carpio started the day dropping an 8-3 decision to eventual champion Ronnie Bresser of Oregon State, and then rebounded to defeat Cal Poly’s Yoshi Funakoshi in a 5-3 decision. Carpio then went on to pin CSUB’s Sergio Mendez in 1:29 in the third/fourth place bout.
Kraus went 3-1 on the day, starting off with an 8-2 win over Mason Pengilly of Stanford, and then a 9-2 win over Cal Poly’s Colton Schilling. In the finals, Kraus dropped a 6-3 decision to Geo Martinez of Boise State, and then defeated Oregon State’s Devin Reynolds in a 5-2 decision to secure the qualification to the national meet.
With three bids to NCAAs up for grabs at 157 pounds, Pierce rebounded from dropping a 5-4 decision to Oregon State’s Alex Elder by pinning CSUB’s Spencer Hill in 1:42. In the third/fourth place bout, Pierce secured a bid by defeating Cal Poly’s Colt Shorts, 2-1, in tiebreaker action.
Redshirt senior Chace Eskam went 1-1 on the day, finishing as the runner-up at heavyweight, defeating Oregon State’s Nate Keeve, 3-2 in tiebreaker action in the semifinals, and then fell to Stanford’s Nathan Butler in the finals, 4-1. Also Sunday, Eskam was honored as the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Also for the Sun Devils, sophomore Judson Preskitt placed fourth at 133 pounds, as did junior Ray Waters at 174 pounds, and redshirt junior Josh DaSilveira at 197 pounds. Freshman Jacen Petersen also placed sixth at 165 pounds.
“Overall we showed good effort, competed hard 95 percent of the time, and it’s a good move in the right direction for our program,” Jones said. “We’ve got five guys that we know for sure are going to St. Louis, and there’s a chance we’ll get a couple at-large bids, but we won’t know that until the second week of March. Now it’s time for us to head back to Tempe and get ready for what’s next.”
The NCAA will announce the remaining 70 at-large qualifiers for the NCAA Championships on Wednesday, March 11.
Quotes:
Redshirt junior Blake Stauffer – Pac-12 Champion, 184 Pounds
“It was good to finally get the conference title under my belt after taking second the past two years. I didn’t try to let anything get into my head, I knew going out there what I had to do was what I’ve been doing all year, and today I was successful.”
Redshirt freshman Christian Pagdilao – Pac-12 Champion, 149 Pounds
“I’m feeling really good right now. I came into this weekend knowing I had to keep the pressure up, score more points, and dominate in every fashion, and I think I did a fairly decent job. I’ve got a couple things to work on these next couple weeks, but I’m just ready to compete at the NCAA Championships.”
Junior Ares Carpio – Earned bid to NCAA Championships at 125 pounds
“I’m feeling good, obviously, knowing that I’m going to the NCAA Championship. It’s been a while, but I’m finally punching my ticket, so I’m really excited. I didn’t know what the allocations were for bids, so I just went into today trying to do my best, and all my hard work paid off.”
Junior Matt Kraus – Earned bid to NCAA Championships at 141 pounds
“I’m feeling good, this is my first time going to the NCAA Championships, so that’s obviously a positive. Today was a good day, but there’s still a lot more work to be done these next couple weeks. Of course I’m going to enjoy tonight, but Monday morning is back to business.”
Redshirt Senior Chace Eskam – Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year
“It’s a great honor to get this award. A big part of being a student athlete is, of course, being a scholar, keeping your grades up. I felt like I wrestled hard, and I would have liked to win the final bout, but I left it all out on the mat.”
Final Team Standings
1. Oregon State -- 139.5
2. Arizona State -- 107.0
3. Stanford -- 100.0
4. Boise State -- 85.5
5. CSU Bakersfield -- 81.0
6. Cal Poly -- 77.0
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