ASU wrestling will look to send its seniors off as winners, as they face the defending Pac-12 champion Oregon State Beavers in their last home meet of the regular season.
Last time out, the Sun Devils split the triple-duel against West Virginia and Stanford, beating WVU 17-17 on criteria, and losing to Stanford 23-13. There were good outings from red shirt sophomore Christian Pagdilao and all-American red shirt senior Blake Stauffer, but they will need a lot more help from their friends this time around against No. 20 ranked Oregon State.
With this matchup against their Pac-12 adversary, it may prove as a pivotal match as the postseason creeps upon them, but according to head coach Zeke Jones, the approach isn’t any different this week.
“The preparation isn’t any different, we follow the same process,” he said. “We’re going to work on the things we need to improve, and then we turn our attention to our opponent. ... We got a good in-conference matchup, and obviously (with OSU) being the returning Pac-12 champions, we put a bulls-eye on them, it’s a nice team to knock off."
Oregon State had a good outing at the Clackamas Open Tournament at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City, Oregon last month, having boasted six of their wrestlers in the top two at the tournament. They are also coming off a 32-7 shellacking of Wyoming on Jan. 16.
Jones has to make sure that he has the right matchups going into this bout with OSU, and deciding which wrestler will take the mat for the Sun Devils at the 149-pound weight class will be a tough decision. Senior Matt Kraus has been hot as of late, but Pagdilao is the defending Pac-12 champion in the weight class, and he has finally started to get healthy again.
“We’re still figuring it out, nothing has been decided yet,” Jones said. “We have a great problem, right? We have two very good wrestlers in the same weight class, and we’re just kind of making our way through it.”
Friday is more than a important meet for ASU — it's also Senior Night. Wrestlers such as Stauffer, Kraus and Josh DaSilveira will have their last hurrah at Wells Fargo Arena before the Pac-12 Championships kick off.
“To have nine seniors is a pretty big group,” Jones said. "You’ll probably start off with ten freshmen, and end up with three seniors, (wrestling’s) attrition rate is pretty high, but this group is a very special group.”
The leader of this group, Stauffer, is looking forward to his matchup against stiff competition on Friday, and he’s not going to look to change his winning formula against OSU.
“We’re doing what we do (to get ready for OSU), and we’re not really changing who we are as a team,” Stauffer said. “This is a big opportunity for us, facing the Pac-12 champs from last year.”
The reality of this being his senior night and his last dual meet in Tempe hasn’t really settled in to Stauffer’s mind.
“I haven’t had a chance to think about it too much, it’s definitely going to be surreal,” he said. “You hear a lot of alumni who have wrestled in the past say it goes by fast, you know, enjoy it, but I am definitely getting a feel about what that means. … I’ve honestly really enjoyed myself here, and I’m really looking to go out and make it one last great competition.”
Friday's meet will start at 5 p.m.
Related Links:
ASU wrestling sneaks past West Virginia, halted by Stanford
Sun Devil wrestling to face No. 14-ranked Iowa State
Reach the reporter at benjamin.a.flores@asu.edu or follow @benflores21 on Twitter.
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