Courtesy Nicole Praga, SDA Communications
TEMPE, Ariz. – Three Arizona State wrestlers won titles, propelling the Sun Devils to their second consecutive second place finish at the Pac-12 Championships on Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena.
The Sun Devils fell short to defending champions Oregon State, however, as the Beavers took the championship, 118-113. CSU Bakersfield finished third with 101 team points.
Junior Dalton Brady and redshirt seniors Blake Stauffer and Josh Dasilveira, at 133, 184 and 197 pounds, respectively, won titles along with automatic bids to the NCAA Wrestling Championships at Madison Square Garden in March.
Three more Sun Devils claimed automatic bids to the national meet, sophomore Robbie Mathers (141), senior Matt Kraus (149), and freshman Tanner Hall (HWT).
Stauffer claimed his second consecutive Pac-12 title at 184 pounds as he defeated Corey Griego of Oregon State, 6-2. After a first round bye, Stauffer defeated Cal Poly’s Mitch Woods in an 11-1 major decision victory. Stauffer is the Sun Devil’s first two-time Pac-12 Champion since Anthony Robles won three straight titles at 125 pounds from 2009-11.
In his final season as a Sun Devil, DaSilveira upset the No. 1 seeded Reuben Franklin of CSUB for the second time this season, 6-5 in a close bout. In the first round, DaSilveira pinned Kayden Del Toro of Boise State in 2:57. He then defeated JT Goodwin of Cal Poly in a 12-3 major decision victory before claiming his very first Pac-12 title.
After a successful return into the line-up after sustaining an injury in November, Brady won his first Pac-12 title, defeating Oregon State’s Joey Palmer with an overtime takedown, 4-2. Brady defeated CSUB’s Carlos Herrera in a 15-5 major decision in the first round before taking down Stanford’s Mason Pengilly, in a 5-3 decision to move on to the championship.
Kraus finished second to Boise State’s Geordan Martinez in a 3-1 decision in the championship. Prior to the championship Kraus defeated Joey Delgado of Oregon State in an 11-2 major decision victory.
After dropping his opening match, Mathers went on to finish the night defeating his original opponent Colt Schilling of Cal Poly by a 25-14 major decision for the third place finish and the automatic bid.
Hall went 1-1 on the day, finishing in third place, shutting out Matt Williams of CSUB in a 16-0 tech fall. In the consolation semifinals, Hall pinned Boise State’s Gabe Gonzalez in 2:26.
Quotes
ASU Head Coach Zeke Jones
Opening Statement
Mixed thoughts, you know we’re taking six on to the NCAA Tournament, that’s great. We’re leaving four home, that hurts. It’s a game of inches and finishing second doesn’t feel good. However we’re closing the gap, we’re getting better, we’re competing the right way. That consolation semi-final round we lost two heartbreaking matches. One in overtime and one at the buzzer and combine that with Oregon State having three falls that round, that was a ten point swing. Lose by five, every win is basically worth two points. We needed to reverse three of those matches or pick up a bonus point somewhere. It’s like anything, it’s always easy to focus on the things you don’t do well but we got six guys we’re taking on to the NCAA Tournament, and six All-Americans and some national champions and now all the sudden, we’re having a party. So we’re going re-group, we’re going figure out what we can do better and we’re going battle and get ready to go to New York City, do our job.
On finishing in second
Yeah, we want to win. We talk about it all the time on the team. We want win everything we wrestle in. We don’t just say the NCAA or Pac-12. We want to win every dual meet, every single match, every single wrestling position so until we get on top, yeah it’s disappointing. The positive of it is we know we’re closing the gap. I don’t know what we lost by last year, but it felt like it was more than this year. We were out of it by the semi-finals. We were in basically the whole way until that consolation semi-final, we were in a hole. So we’re improving, now its lets get focused on those six guys that are going to the NCAA Tournament. Let’s keep climbing up those podiums and get on top of them.
On getting two weeks to train for NCAA
It’s like anything, whatever schedule is you plan accordingly. Two and a half week training cycle we’re going train hard the first week and we’ll give them some time off. I’m still deciding if it will be a day or two. But we’ll get a good hard week and then we’ll taper down from there. I like the Big 10 and the other conferences because they only have a nine-day training cycle they’ll get two to three hard days and we’ll get five to six. We can bank some conditioning, and its not conditioning as much as its mental. Conditioning is the not the issue, its mental fatigue. There’s physical fatigue and mental fatigue, that’s what we have to make sure we’re careful with.
On Mathers
He told me he was too nervous before his first match. He tried too hard. He was trying to hard to do too many things and when it wasn’t working he got frustrated and scared. He didn’t say that but that’s basically what happened. He went out with a more relaxed approach his final matches and it paid off. You could see he found his rhythm, you know he stayed focus. It was good because you could be at the NCAA Tournament and you might be down 5-0, it can happen. But can you respond. The first time he couldn’t. The second time, he did. Now you cant do that at the NCAA Tournament, you have to respond at the right way the first time. But you need to bank one of these kinds of wins to then know what to do when you’re there again and in this sport like all sports, you win a variety of different ways and you kind of have to check off all the columns. We do that to them sometimes in practice saying you’re down by 5, two minutes to go, ready go. And you’ve got to respond and he was able to do that. I was glad to see that he was able to make that improvement, that adjustment.
Blake Stauffer
On conditioning at the end of the match
I don’t think conditioning was a huge factor in my match. I felt fine. Obviously, conditioning is one thing we are going to try and fine tune going into the NCAA tournament. We have a couple of weeks to work on that, but I don’t think it was much of an issue in that third period for me.
On looking ahead to NCAAs
Anytime you come up short, you learn something from that. I know in my case I definitely did. I felt good going into it. I got another Pac-12 title, but that was just a stepping stone in my mind heading into the national tournament. Little frustrated because I was hoping to get the team title for the program. Definitely happy where I am and ready to go be on top of the podium at NCAA’s.
Josh DaSilveira
On conditioning at the end of the match
In my wrestling experience, when you’re down, you kind of have this automatic go. I knew when I was up by a couple points, I’ve wrestled this guy a couple times and he’s has a motor to him, I knew he was going to push the pace. I mentally got myself tired. I got to the leg when I wanted to get to the leg. I just had to talk to myself, I was mentally beating myself down towards the end. Conditioning wise, we are in the wrestling room going hard. Conditioning wasn’t a super big factor. It’s a game of inches. Just small things like the last second takedowns and the last second ride-outs. One ticket to go to NCAA’s, a lot of stuff running through my head and I think that hurt my mentality a little.
On the championship match
(The last six seconds) Felt like it was forever. I just remember Coach Pritts saying when the time is there, sting them. I was thinking about just holding that one leg and then he fed me the other leg. My mind was going a thousand different places. I knew once I dropped to the ankle, I was attacking there so I knew there wasn’t going to be a stalling call. I knew he was trying to get a stall, he was just trying to prolong the match. When you have a ticket to the NCAA’s on the line, there is a lot of stuff that goes through your mind. Fifth year senior, it gets a little nerve-racking out there sometimes.
On the emotions of winning the Pac-12 championship
I’ve had a long wrestling career man. I have come a long way. That was just for everybody that has been there for me. I came along way man. To have a group of guys towards the end that cared about me and a group of fans that support you, that feels nice. I have never really had that, I was really struggling at NC State, Iowa, and here. I would not think that about 95% of wrestlers would have took the route that I took. I definitely went the hard way. That match wasn’t the best looking match, but these guys are there for me. I’d rip my ligaments out in my freaking heart if I could. It is just a little emotional. I’m not like this, but when it’s all said and done, it feels good. Now I finally get to give thanks. There is not much else to do now except go to NCAA’s, that is what I wanted. Now I just have to do work there.
Dalton Brady
On his championship match
I wrestled this kid earlier in the year, takedown at the very end. It was really close. Going into this one I knew this kid was tough. He game planned really well, I could feel it. I was in better shape, cardio wasn’t a factor for me whatsoever. I could feel in that third period he was getting really tired and I knew that was my opportunity. Throughout the match he was getting in on me and that was a little frustrating. I couldn’t really move well, he was smothering me. He did a good job honestly. Towards the end of that third period I could feel him getting tired. All the way through overtime he was tired, but he stayed aggressive the whole time.
On his path to becoming Pac-12 Champion
It is exciting working with Coach Jones. I have been going through some injuries, last year and this year, and so I have been trying to get the right amount of matches to bring the RPI up. Just doing whatever I can to get better. Coach Jones was working with me because he knew I was behind with matches and I didn’t have that feel or experience. It felt good.
Final Team Standings
1. Oregon State – 118.0
2. Arizona State – 113.0
3. CSU Bakersfield – 101.0
4. Stanford – 100.0
5. Boise State – 92.0
6. Cal Poly – 73.5
2016 NCAA Qualifiers
133 – Dalton Brady (Pac-12 Champ)
141 – Robbie Mathers (Third Place)
149 – Matt Kraus* (Second Place)
184 – Blake Stauffer** (Pac-12 Champ)
197 – Josh DaSilveira (Pac-12 Champ)
HWT – Tanner Hall (Third Place)
*Two-time NCAA qualifier
**Four-time NCAA qualifier