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ASU wrestling gets back on track with victory over CSU Bakersfield

The Sun Devils improve to 5-10 with one regular season dual meet remaining

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ASU 125 pound redshirt freshman Brandon Courtney takes on his opponent as ASU faces off against University of Missouri in Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Arizona on Friday, Feb. 8, 2019.


ASU wrestling's four-dual losing streak came to a halt Saturday afternoon after a 24-12 Pac-12 win over California State University, Bakersfield (6-9, 2-2). 

Bonus points came in bunches for ASU, thanks to three victories and a Roadrunners' forfeit at 174 pounds.

One of the major decisions came from redshirt junior Josh Shields, who extended his match-winning streak to 13. The 165-pounder said he was happy to see his team get back in the win column.

"It's nice," Shields said. "As a team, we like to say that we're 0-0 right now because ultimately, it doesn't matter who you're going against. Obviously, we're not going to sit and dwell on the win, we're not going to sit and dwell on a loss either. We're just trying to get better every single second." 

Before intermission, ASU won four of the five matches, highlighted by additional bonus point victories from redshirt freshman Brandon Courtney and redshirt sophomore Cory Crooks.

"We're always working to get bonus points," Shields said. "That's something (Coach Zeke Jones) preaches because we never know how any of the matches are going to turn out."

Then, at 149 and 157 pounds, respectively, redshirt junior Josh Maruca and graduate student Christian Pagdilao each escaped with narrow wins to put ASU up 14-3 at intermission.

ASU's largest lead of the afternoon, 24-3, came after the 165 and 174 pound bouts.  

One of CSU Bakersfield's four victories came in the 184-pound bout from redshirt sophomore Dominic Ducharme, the reigning Pac-12 Wrestler of the Week. 

Despite falling in each of the last three bouts, the Sun Devils early lead carried them to their second conference win of the season.

Now 5-10, the Sun Devils will close out the regular season in Tempe next Friday, Feb. 22 against Cal Poly at 7:00 p.m. MST. 


Reach the reporter at kmgianco@asu.edu and follow @Kaleb_Mart on Twitter.

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