Two forfeits at 157 and 174 pounds cost the ASU wrestling team a crucial 12 points in a 10-point loss to Cal State Baskersfield on Friday night.
The Sun Devils won four individual matches in the Pac-10 matchup, with redshirt senior Anthony Robles, junior Te Edwards, junior Jake Meredith and redshirt sophomore Levi Cooper picking up victories against the Roadrunners, who defeated ASU 27-17.
“The whole thing is, we know we’re giving up a lot of points beforehand, but the guys are going out there and they’re wrestling with a lot of pride,” ASU coach Shawn Charles said. “As a coach, that’s all I can ask for.”
As has been the case all season long, Robles got the Sun Devils rolling right off the bat with a 19-3 technical fall decision to run his undefeated record to 23-0 on the year and give the Sun Devils an early 5-0 advantage.
The Roadrunners then proceeded to win the next four matches, including a 6-point forfeit by ASU at 157 pounds.
“We wrestled tough with the guys we had,” Edwards said. “As a whole, we came out and wrestled well. I feel like if we had a full line-up, we would have beaten them.”
Edwards had a good night himself, pinning Roadrunner senior Trevor Hall at 165 pounds in just 1:43, revving up the home crowd of 887 and closing the team score to 18-11.
“I was ready for a battle, but he gave me an opportunity to hit a big move and put him away early, so I took it,” Edwards said. “I was pretty excited [when I got the victory].”
With another Sun Devil forfeit at 174 pounds, however, the Roadrunners went up 24-11 with only three matches remaining, essentially putting the win out of reach for ASU.
The Sun Devils didn’t go down without a fight, though, and won two of the three remaining matches.
“As long as we stay healthy and have a full line-up, we’ll be hard to beat,” Edwards said.
Meredith, who had a 9-4 win at 184 pounds, also agreed that in light of the loss, there were some good things to take away from Friday night’s dual.
“I think we wrestled pretty well,” Meredith said. “We didn’t give up too many bonus points. We got big bonus points from Te [Edwards], Robles just does work all the time, and Levi [Cooper] wrestled pretty well, too.”
In order to ensure success down the stretch, ASU must get healthy again as well as work on capitalizing on scoring opportunities, Charles said.
“We have got to work on our finishes,” Charles said. “We were getting into their legs, and we weren’t capitalizing. Our percentages of finishes have to be higher.”
ASU’s next competition, which is the final home dual of the season, is on Sunday against No. 24 Cal Poly.
Reach the reporter at kyle.j.newman@asu.edu
