March 13, 2013
TEMPE – The Arizona State University wrestling team will be represented by four individual wrestlers at the 2013 NCAA Wrestling Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, the NCAA announced today.
Blake Stauffer, Kevin Radford, Jake Meredith and Levi Cooper all earned automatic bids at the Pac-12 Championships in Tempe, Ariz., two weekends ago and will compete for national titles at the Wells Fargo Arena from March 21-23.
Senior Jake Meredith received the highest seed for a Sun Devil as he will enter next weekend as the nation’s No. 9 seed at 197 pounds. Meredith (26-7), the Pac-12 runner-up in the weight class, will take on Nikolas Brown (28-3) of Chattanooga in the opening round of competition.
With a win, Meredith would advance to take on the winner of Andrew Campolattano (Ohio State) and No. 8 Micah Burak (Penn). Meredith defeated Campolattano at the Las Vegas Invitational earlier this season but was defeated by Burak in a 5-2 decision. A loss would pit Meredith against the loser of the above matchup.
Redshirt freshman Blake Stauffer earned the tournament’s No. 11 seed at 174 pounds. Stauffer (22-3) will square off with Matt Mougin (22-15) of Northern Illinois. From there, Stauffer will take on the winner or loser of the contest between Bryce Hammond (CSU Bakersfield) – who defeated Stauffer for the Pac-12 title – and Logan Storley of Minnesota, the tournament’s No. 6 seed.
At 184 pounds, redshirt sophomore Kevin Radford (21-13) drew Penn’s Canaan Bethea (25-9) for this first-round match-up. Radford lost to Bethea earlier this season in a tough 5-4 decision. Based on the outcome of that bout, Radford will take on either top-seeded Ed Ruth of Penn State or Fred Garcia of Lock Haven.
Finally, senior heavyweight Levi Cooper (22-10) will compete in his third and final NCAA Championship as he takes on No. 9 Zac Thomusseit (23-2) of Pitt in the opening round for a chance to take on Cleveland State’s Riley Shaw or No. 8 Mike McClure of Michigan State.
ESPN will televise each match at the 2013 NCAA Wrestling Championships and Opening Round action can be found live on ESPN3, while select quarterfinal and semifinal action will be broadcast on ESPNU. The finals will be presented live on ESPN on Saturday evening.