ASU freshman Jacen Petersen starts out strong against CSU Bakersfield's Adam Fierro. Petersen went on to win the match handily on Jan. 18, 2015, at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. The Sun Devils went on to win against the Roadrunners 31 – 6. (J. Bauer-Leffler/The State Press)
The ASU wrestling team had a solid showing at the Edinboro Open tournament on Saturday with eight Sun Devils recording top-five finishes in their respective weight classes.
The team had three wrestlers win their weight class on Saturday. Sophomore Oliver Pierce at 157 pounds, junior Ray Waters and 174 pounds and redshirt junior Blake Stauffer at 184 pounds all took home the crown in their weight class from the tournament.
Pierce rolled past his first four opponents with a major decision win, a technical fall, decision and a fall en route to the final match against Chase Delande of the host university, Edinboro.
Pierce was able to score the 4-2 decision victory to take home the 157-pound title. Going into the event, Pierce was 10-5 overall and coming off of an overtime loss in the Stanford dual.
The trip to the finals for Waters was not as easy as it was for Pierce. Waters won his first four bouts via decision by a combined seven points before meeting Northwestern’s John Sebastian in the final bout.
Waters won the bout via medical forfeit to win the 174-pound weight class. Waters extended his five fight win streak in the tournament and improved his overall record to 18-5 at 174 pounds.
Stauffer continued his dominance in Edinboro as he breezed through every opponent he matched up with on Saturday. He had a bye in the first round so only had three bouts before the finals and won each in decisive fashion.
Stauffer had a technical fall, fall and major decision win before meeting Fred Garcia of Lock Haven University. Stauffer was able to score a pin in 2:55 to win his third tournament this season at 184 pounds.
He previously won the Daktronics Open in November and the Cliff Keen Invitational in December at 184 pounds this season. Stauffer improved to 26-1 on the year overall as he continues to make his case for the best in the nation in his weight class.
Redshirt freshman Christian Pagdilao continued his hot streak on Saturday with a second place finish in the 149-pound weight class. Pagdilao came in to the event with a 13-1 overall record. He was able to score two decision wins along with a fall and technical fall on his way to the finals where he was edged out in a 7-2 loss to Virginia Tech’s Solomon Chishko.
Redshirt junior Josh DaSilveira, junior Matt Kraus, redshirt senior Kevin Radford and sophomore Dalton Brady all recorded top-five finishes in Edinboro and senior heavyweight Chace Eskam finished sixth in his class.
The Edinboro Open was one of the best overall performances for the team this season and they will look to continue that momentum as they travel to Iowa for a dual against Iowa State on Friday. The Cyclones are currently ranked eighth on the USA Today/NWCA Coaches’ poll.
Reach the reporter at wslane@asu.edu or on Twitter @bill_slane
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