Thanks in large part to a bruising regular season schedule, four Sun Devils will compete in the NCAA Championships beginning Thursday in St. Louis.
Redshirt junior All-America heavyweight Levi Cooper secured an automatic spot with his second-place finish at the Pac-12 tournament several weeks ago, and three ASU redshirt freshman earned at-large bids.
Shane McGough (133 pounds), Nathan Hoffer (141) and Kevin Radford (184) are all making their first appearance on college wrestling’s biggest stage.
“We didn’t wrestle our best at the Pac-12s, but we were very fortunate to have our guys wrestle a competitive season this year, and we’re very fortunate we also beat some quality guys during the season in order to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament,” coach Shawn Charles said. “The only reason that (our freshmen) got in was because of the RPI of our schedule and their wins and losses.”
The difficult path the Sun Devils traversed this year has made McGough (18-13), Hoffer (20-9) and Radford (18-12) more than ready to handle the stiff competition in St. Louis.
“A lot of us have already wrestled the No. 1 guys in our weight class, including me, Hoffer and McGough in particular,” Radford said. “We also wrestled a lot of guys in the top 15, top 20, so we already have a good feel for them and we know what they bring to the table.”
While the trio of redshirt freshmen try to make a mark in their first showing at nationals, Cooper has his sights set on a national crown. To do that, the No. 9 seed in the tournament will have to avenge his loss to No. 3 seed Clayton Jack of Oregon State.
But both Charles and Cooper know that if the heavyweight wrestles his game, he can beat anyone in the country.
“For me, it’s really going to come down to my pace,” Cooper said. “I’ve got to outpace my competition, and it’s going to be very important for me to get a take down in the first round. If I get a take down in the first round, I’m very hard to beat.”
Cooper is feeling mentally and physically fresh thanks to the three-week break in competition before the NCAAs. He also used this time off to fine-tune his technique and go through each and every possible situation out on the mat.
“He’s beaten Clayton Jack before, he’s been in the tournament before, he’s been an All-American before,” Charles said. “I think that he’s more prepared than any other guy on our team, for sure.”
In addition to being ultra-confident in Cooper, Charles emphasized how this year is only the beginning of ASU’s rise back into the national spotlight.
“We see this as a solid foundation-building process for our program, our team for the future,” Charles said. “We know we have some quality guys in our room right now that didn’t qualify for the NCAA tournament that are going to be more mature next year, more prepared for the season and therefore better wrestlers for us.”
The three-day tournament will be broadcast live from the Scottrade Center on ESPN3 online for the first two rounds and on ESPN and ESPNU for the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals.
Former ASU NCAA champion Anthony Robles has signed on to be an analyst for the broadcasts on ESPN and ESPNU.
Reach the reporter at kjnewma2@asu.edu
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