ASU sophomore Oliver Pierce sweeps the leg of CSU Bakersfield's Spencer Hill in their matchup on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015, at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. Pierce won the match 5 – 4. The Sun Devils went on to win against the Roadrunners 31 – 6. (J. Bauer-Leffler/The State Press)An important weekend of road conference duals for ASU wrestling starts on Friday at Boise State and Sunday at Stanford.
Boise State has struggled its past two times out, losing to South Dakota State and North Dakota State. Boise State freshman Michael Cook and redshirt senior Cody Dixon both were undefeated in the duals.
The Sun Devils downed the Broncos 21-15 last season in Wells Fargo Arena, helped by a major decision from now-redshirt senior Joel Smith, a pin from junior Ray Waters and a technical fall from redshirt junior Blake Stauffer. Waters and Stauffer are probable in the meet on Friday.
The Broncos will be looking for their first Pac-12 win and improve their 2-4 overall record against the Sun Devils.
The matchup on Sunday against the Cardinal in Stanford is a much more challenging one for ASU. Last week, they held a doubleheader at home against Cal Poly and Air Force and won both meets. They had six wrestlers go 2-0 on the day.
The Sun Devils also fell to Stanford last season in Tempe where the Cardinal defeated ASU 22-10. Stauffer did record a major decision victory against Stanford’s Zach Nevills last season.
The Stanford dual will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.
These may be conference duals against good opponents on the road, but head coach Zeke Jones will be treating this weekend like any other for the team.
“Every one counts, home and away,” he said. “A conference win, I don’t really look at them too differently. Every match counts, non-conference and conference.”
The Sun Devils will have the opportunity to go 3-1 in conference this weekend, which would go a long way when the national championships come around.
After topping CSU Bakersfield on Sunday, the Sun Devils have jumped into the 25th spot of the Amateur Wrestling News rankings. It is the first time this season they have been in the top-25. Waters, 13th at 174-pounds, and Stauffer, fourth at 184-pounds, are also ranked in the AWN individual rankings.
This weekend is the start of a four-meet stretch on the road, including trips to Iowa and Pennsylvania. The next time the Sun Devils will be in Wells Fargo Arena is Feb. 16 against Cal Poly; this will also be the team’s last home meet of the year and the last meet before the Pac-12 Championships.
The meet against the Boise State Broncos will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday with streaming available at BroncosSports.com while the dual against the Stanford Cardinal will be on the Pac-12 Networks at 12 p.m. Sunday.
Reach the reporter at wslane@asu.edu or on Twitter @bill_slane
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