ASU redshirt senior wrestler Chace Eskam faces off against Cal Poly sophomore Nicolas Johnson in the 285-pound weight division match at Wells Fargo Arena on Feb. 16, 2015. The Sun Devils would roll to a 30-9 victory over the Mustangs. (Daniel Kwon/The State Press)
The life of a college athlete is not always an easy one.
Early morning practices, classes, training sessions and homework make it so you have to truly love the sport you play to compete at the collegiate level.
However, ASU senior wrestler Chace Eskam’s collegiate career has been a little more difficult than your average college athlete's.
On Monday night, his career as a Sun Devil in Wells Fargo Arena came to an end in the only way he knew how.
Eskam is a graduate of Carlsbad High School in San Diego County, California, where he was a two-sport athlete for the Lancers. He lettered for three years for the football team but was a four-time member of the school’s wrestling team where he became one of the most decorated wrestlers in the school’s recent history.
He compiled a 110-23 record from his sophomore season (when he became a regular competitor) through his senior season. He was a three-time San Diego Section Masters finalist and the 2010 CIF champion at 197 pounds. His accomplishments earned him a spot in the San Diego Hall of Champions.
The two-time high school all-American and three-time state championship qualifier decided to commit to Cal State Fullerton for his collegiate career. However, the school had to terminate its wrestling program in the spring of 2011 after failing in an attempt to raise enough money to keep the sport.
His time as a Titan was so brief that the now-psychology major did not have time to declare at Cal State Fullerton.
When Eskam decided to transfer to ASU in 2011, he probably thought the rest of his college career would go smoothly. But that wasn’t meant to be.
Eskam competed in just a handful of matches in his first year as a Sun Devil, and he wouldn’t have another chance to compete until the 2013-14 season.
After fearing something was wrong, Eskam went to a doctor and received a diagnosis on testicular cancer. It was later revealed that it had spread to the lymph nodes in his stomach.
Still eligible for a redshirt year, Eskam was sidelined for the entire 2012-13 season. After several rounds of chemo, Eskam received the report that he was in remission and was healthy to compete.
At the first event of the season, the Cowboy Open in Laramie, Wyoming, Eskam competed in his first bout in over a year against Greg Isley of Air Force. The bout went to a sudden victory overtime round, where Eskam took the bout 4-2. Eskam would go on to win third place at 197 pounds in the tournament.
His first season back was a success after battling his cancer diagnosis one year before. Eskam made the move to heavyweight during that season and was named to the 2014 Pac-12 all-academic first team with a GPA of 3.73 as a redshirt junior.
Eskam’s redshirt senior season has been up and down. In November he finished third at heavyweight in the Daktronics Open by pinning North Dakota State’s Daniel Pena in less than two minutes. However Eskam is only 6-7 in duals this season as the team heads into the Pac-12 Championships on March 1.
Monday night was senior night for the wrestling team, meaning it was the final time the seniors on the team would get the chance to compete inside Wells Fargo Arena as a Sun Devil. The dual against the Cal Poly Mustangs started with the lightweights, which meant that Eskam’s final home heavyweight bout would be the last match on senior night.
It was your typical heavyweight bout for three rounds, with two large and athletic men trying to look for any hole to take advantage of and get his opponent to the ground. His final match at home ended in a very similar way that his first match back from his cancer, in overtime.
It seemed that Eskam did not want to leave Wells Fargo Arena. The match went on for three overtimes before Eskam found his opening to edge out Cal Poly’s Nicolas Johnson 2-1.
After the dual, Eskam looked back at his time as a Sun Devil.
“I’ve just been reflecting about my whole experience here now that it’s coming to an end,” Eskam said. “Looking back and thinking about how much fun I’ve had.”
Eskam found a way to have fun even after his diagnosis and continued to have the kind of success that made him a champion in high school, showing patience as he sat out a whole season.
Eskam had to wait on Monday night too. After the bell of the final overtime round, Cal Poly head coach Brendan Buckley challenged that Eskam had illegally locked his hands that forced the official decision to be delayed several minutes.
Video by Bill Slane | Sports Reporter
“That coach, just hoping he’d get lucky on a challenge, thought Chace had locked hands but he had not,” head coach Zeke Jones said after the dual on Monday.
After the review it was finally determined that Eskam had not illegally locked his hands and instead got his hand raised as the winner for the final time in Wells Fargo Arena.
Jones has only coached Eskam this season but said after the dual that Eskam’s fight was a classic Chace Eskam fight as he “just stayed in there.”
The crowd in Well Fargo Arena on Monday, aware of Eskam’s story, gave the redshirt senior a final sendoff with a roaring ovation as he was declared the winner.
“I just felt more excited for the crowd,” Eskam said. “It was a good crowd, and they really got me going in those overtime rounds.”
Eskam’s collegiate career is not over just yet. On March 1 the team will travel to Corvallis, Oregon, for the Pac-12 Championships. If Eskam can place in the top two or three in the heavyweight division, there he’ll have the chance to compete at the NCAA Championships.
With an overall record of 16-13 on the year, Eskam will likely be an underdog to even make the NCAAs. With that said, betting against Eskam when the odds are against him is a bad idea.
Reach the reporter at wslane@asu.edu or follow @bill_slane on Twitter.
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