Ah, the winter break, a time to relax.

But that wasn’t the case for the ASU wrestling team.

“[Over break] most of our days consist of: Wake up, go to a workout, come home, eat a little bit, go to sleep, get up, go to another work out, eat a little bit, go to sleep and then do it all over again the next day,” said freshman Kyle DeBerry (165 pounds).

Over the winter break, the ASU wrestling team (4-4, 2-1 Pac-10) competed in two tournaments and three duals, earning 6th place at the Reno Tournament of Champions and a 19th place finish at the Midlands tournament in Illinois.

The Sun Devils went 1-2 in their duals overall, defeating Grand Canyon 41-6 before falling to CS Bakersfield 36-15 on Jan. 4 and to No. 11 Oklahoma on Sunday, 36-7.

ASU has been steadily preparing for the conference championships in early March and plan to use their final five duals of the season to prepare.

They’ll have to do it without junior heavyweight Erik Nye. Declared academically ineligible, Nye did not compete in any of the squad’s duals over winter break and is no longer practicing with the team.

“Nye’s ineligible, that’s the bottom line,” said coach Thom Ortiz.

Sophomore Imanibom Etukeren, who has a record of 1-2 in duals, will replace Nye. “I-man has been asked to be thrown to the dogs, to the wolves,” said Ortiz. “He’s got to be prepared. He has no choice but to move forward.”

ASU’s youth and inexperience showed on Sunday against a skilled OU squad, as the Sun Devils were pushed around by the undefeated Sooners (14-0, 1-0 Big 12).

“We’re going to watch the tape and see what we did wrong,” said Ortiz. “It’s at this point that constructive criticism has to taken and enrolled.”

The dual began with the premiere match up of the night, as No. 10 sophomore Anthony Robles of ASU faced No. 11 Joey Fio in the 125-pound bout.

It did not play out as expected for Sun Devils fans however, as the crowd at Wells Fargo Arena was shocked to see Robles taken in a reversal before a subsequent pin by Fio at 4:08.

“Sometimes other guys, they can let a loss by someone else affect them; but that’s what they need to learn to wrestle through. It’s part of growing; it’s part of the process,” said Ortiz.

Only two Sun Devils secured victories on the night.

Sophomore Chris Drouin was the first, scoring a major decision of 15-6 over OU’s Seth Vernon in the 141-pound match.

ASU’s only other decision of the night came from freshman Kyle DeBerry, who was victorious over Sooner Ryan Smith, 7-3 in the 165-pound bout.

“One thing we need to work on is fighting through the tough times,” said Ortiz. “I mean, for 10 days we didn’t even have a program. You have to do what you have to do.”

Freshman Eric Starks (174 pounds), who lost one of the most contested bouts of the night, 4-2 to No. 9 Jeff James, isn’t taking that sentiment lightly.

“I learned that I just need to bust my ass in the wrestling room. Just practice hard, wrestle hard,” he said.

Ortiz pointed to a lack of experience and missed opportunities as the downfall, but maintained his emphasis that his squad must “fail forward” as they continue to mature on the mats.

“What we’re going to do is a lot more drilling, a lot more wrestling. We missed some seize-able opportunities. But you know when you’re wrestling four freshmen and five sophomores, that’s going to happen.”

ASU’s next dual is their final nonconference meet of the season as they play host to No. 9 Minnesota on Friday at 7 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena.

Contact the reporter at joshua.spivack@asu.edu.