The ASU wrestling squad heads into the season’s first road duals injured and looking to get more out of two meets than just wins.
ASU (5-9, 1-2 Pac-10) will first face off against No. 14 Nebraska (11-4, 1-1 Big 12) in Lincoln on Friday at 7 p.m. before traveling to Ames, Iowa to take on No. 15 Iowa State (7-8, 0-2 Big 12) on Sunday at 2 p.m.
“It’s a big trip,” redshirt sophomore heavyweight Levi Cooper said. “I guess for us, it’s going to be more about how the guys that are wrestling are able to perform as opposed to what the final team score is.”
These two upcoming matches against Big 12 powerhouses will prove to be a test of ASU’s mental and physical toughness.
“We’ll have to cut the weight right and make sure we eat right,” junior Te Edwards (165-pound weight class) said. “We got to make sure we do these things right, or we probably won’t perform that well.”
Both the Huskers and Cyclones have deep and talented rosters that will prove to be challenging for the Sun Devils.
Nebraska recently upset No. 7 Missouri, and Iowa State currently has four wrestlers in the top 20 of their weight classes.
Matching up at certain weights could be a problem for ASU.
“We have a few weak weight classes, and we’re missing two of our best guys, so it’s really tough for us in dual meets because we don’t have the firepower that other teams do,” Cooper said. “But I think we’re doing all right [with the guys we got].”
The strongest point for ASU continues to be senior Anthony Robles, who has been moved to the No. 1 spot in the 125-pound weight class in several national rankings.
He is currently undefeated with 24 wins, 17 of which have come by technical fall.
Other than that, it has been a rough year for the Sun Devils. But the team hasn’t quit and is continuing to put in long hours in the practice room.
“We’ve been going hard,” Edwards said. “We had a real tough practice [Tuesday] where the coaches put an hour and a half on the clock and we just went at it. It was getting scrappy, little scuffles broke out; we’re just getting into that survival fight mode.”
ASU needs to carry that same mentality into its matches this weekend, especially against schools from the Big 12, which has five teams ranked in the top 15.
“[It will be a good test] going into these more hostile environments,” Cooper said. “It’s Big 12 wrestling; I would expect there to be at least 2,000 people at both of the duals and probably an atmosphere that some of the guys haven’t experienced.”
Even with a losing record, the Sun Devils still head into the road trip with confidence in their athletes out on the mat and a better sense of their team identity.
“I think we’ve learned a lot since the beginning of the season, and there’s a lot of things we still need to work on,” redshirt freshman Luke Macchiaroli (197) said. “We kind of fixed some things discipline-wise, and we’re more of a team now in the second half of the season.”
ASU will need to remain tight-knit during these meets, especially in lieu of the two forfeits they will be giving up at the 157 and 174-pound weight classes.
“Even though it is an individual sport, we’ve got to come together as a team, because you got to have [your guys] behind you,” Macchiaroli said.
Following the trip to the Midwest, ASU hits the road again for Pac-10 duals against No. 21 Oregon State and Stanford.
Reach the reporter at kyle.j.newman@asu.edu
