No. 9 @ASUWrestling’s Zahid Valencia Named Pac-12 Wrestler of the Week

SAN FRANCISCO – As announced by the Pac-12 Wednesday afternoon, the No. 1 wrestler in the nation at 174 lbs, Zahid Valencia of Arizona State, has been named Pac-12 Wrestler of the Week for the week of Jan. 8-14, 2018.
 
Valencia and his teammates won the 38th annual Virginia Duals, their first-ever win at the storied tournament, defeating the reigning champion No. 9 Virginia Tech in the finals.
 
For his efforts, Valencia was named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the dual tournament for the second straight season.
 
"Zahid continues to show the nation why he's in the discussion as one of the best wrestlers there is," said head coach Zeke Jones of Valencia following Saturday's win.
 
Valencia, who is 20-0 on the season and 58-1 on his career midway through his sophomore season, recorded four bonus point wins over the weekend, two pins in Friday's pool play round as well as a major decision vs. No. 7 Taylor Lujan (No. 11 Northern Iowa) in the semifinals and a tech fall over No. 9 Virginia Tech's Cody Hughes in the finals.
 
After the weekend, Valencia moved up to a tie for 11th on ASU's all-time career bonus point wins list and career tech fall wins and up to 13th in career major decision wins.
 
This week, the Sun Devils turn their sights to their Pac-12 openers, hosting Stanford on Friday, Jan. 19 (8 pm MT) and Oregon State on Saturday, Jan. 20 (1:30 pm MT), both matches on the Pac-12 Network (pac-12.com/live).
 
For tickets for this weekend's matches, visit https://oss.ticketmaster.com/aps/sundevils/EN/buy/browse.
 
On Saturday at 4 pm, a special Wrestling Legends Celebration will take place at Tempe Mission Palms to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ASU's 1988 NCAA Wrestling Championship. To attend the celebration, visit https://engage.asu.edu/EventApi__simple_event?id=a0z0M0000048SoKQAU.
 
Also nominated: Matt Williams (CSU Bakersfield), Amor Does (Oregon State), Paul Fox (Stanford)