Sunday, February 27, 2011

Boise State Wrestlers Responding Like Champions

Boise State may be #6 in the nation but with five disappointments at the higher weights, Boise State finds itself in a dogfight for the Pac-10 title.


Once again, the dog is Oregon State, which, like Boise State, advanced six wrestlers into tonight's finals.  Between the two teams, they have 60% of tonight's finalists.  Several of the finals will match wrestlers of Boise State and Oregon State, and obviously those head-to-head matchups are huge for the team title.


Oregon State received new life when unseeded Brice Arand defeated Kirk Smith, one of Boise State's top hopes, in the quarterfinal at 184 pounds.  Smith, who had shown just a slight limp throughout the match, limped noticeably after he had been defeated.  The word from Boise State is that Smith will now forfeit the remainder of the championships due to his injury.  I suspected this and now the team is left to carry on without him.    


The bad news spread to 197 pounds, where #1 seed Matt Casperson of Boise State was upset by unseeded Luke Macchiaroli of Arizona State.  Casperson too moves to consolation against unseeded Chad Hanke of Oregon State.  A Beaver win there would go a long ways in propelling the defending champions to another title.


Now, first Jacob Swartz and now #1 seed Matt Casperson have been defeated by wrestlers who weren't even seeded.  #4 Swartz lost at 174 pounds to unranked Eric Starks of Arizona State.  Casperson also lost to an unranked wrestler and to make matters worse, that unranked wrestler was from Oregon State, the team Boise State is trying to beat.  Casperson was content to lock his opponent and then run out of bounds for the entire three rounds, which ended in a 1-1 tie.  Then, as often happens in overtime where one move decides the match, Hanke was able to take down Casperson just before Casperson was trying to get out of bounds and won the match.


Casperson lost in the fifth-place match as well to Ryan Smith of Cal Poly.  Alan Bartelli got a break when he was awarded third place at 125 pounds by medical forfeit over #2 seed Ryan Mango.  Boise State gets five points.  Heavyweight J.T. Felix lost to Clayton Jack, however, and Oregon State gets three points for that.  Felix is guaranteed a spot at the NCAA National Championships.


Andrew Hochstrasser turned Boise State's fortunes around with a dominating 10-0 performance over Oregon State's Garrett Drucker.  Not only was it a head-to-head win over Oregon State, but a major decision for Hoch.  Well done sir!  Andrew is heading to Philadelphia for the NCAA National Championships.


Levi Jones gave a tremendous battle but lost 3-1 to #1 seed Boris Novachkov of Cal Poly in the Pac-10 championship match at 141 pounds.  Jason Chamberlain continued the surge with a 5-2 win over Oregon State's Scott Sakaguchi to be crowned Pac-10 champion at 149 pounds.  Adam Hall made it three Pac-10 champions for Boise State with a 3-2 win in triple overtime over Bubba Jenkins of Arizona State.


With just a few matches remaining,  Boise State leads 147.0 to 139.5 for Oregon State, with Arizona State (106.0), Stanford (103.0), Cal State Bakersfield (93.0), Cal Poly (88.5) and Cal State Fullerton (57.5) rounding out the field.




Here is how each Bronco wrestler has fared today:






125--Alan Bartelli scored a 12-0 major over Britain Longmire of Cal Poly
         lost to #1 seed Anthony Robles of Arizona State by a 14-1 major
        defeated Andre Gonzalez of Cal State Fullerton in consolation
        won third place by medical forfeit over #2 Ryan Mango of Stanford




133--Andrew Hochstrasser had a first-round bye
        defeated Frank Lomas of Cal State Bakersfield with a 16-2 major
        Beat Garrett Drucker of Oregon State 10-0 in a major decision for the Pac-10 Championship. 




141--Levi Jones received a first-round bye
        defeated Michael Mangrum of Oregon State 9-5
       lost to #1 seed Boris Novachkov of Cal Poly 4-3 in the championship.




149--Jason Chamberlain defeated Bakersfield's John Cardenas by Technical Fall 
         scored a 21-7 major over Timmy Boone of Stanford
         defeated Scott Sakaguchi of Oregon State in the final.




157--Adam Hall won by fall over Chris Stinnett of Cal State Fullerton
         beat Kyle Meyer of Stanford 10-3
         beat #2 seed Bubba Jenkins of Arizona State  in the final.




165--Kurt Swartz won a 9-0 major over Bryce Whitehead of Cal State Fullerton 9-0
        defeated Oregon State's Jonathan Brascetta 2-1
         defeated #4 seed Trevor Hall of Cal State Bakersfield in the final.




174--Jacob Swartz won by fall over Mark Savalle of Cal State Fullerton
         lost to #1 seed Colby Covington by a 10-2 major
         lost to unranked Eric Starks of Arizona State in consolation 
        defeated #3 seed Joseph Granata of Bakersfield for 5th place




184--Kirk Smith received a first-round bye
        lost to Brice Arand of Oregon State
        forfeited because of injury.




197--Matt Casperson defeated Kyle Bergstedt of Cal State Fullerton with a 9-0 major
         Lost to Luke Macchiaroli of Arizona State
        lost to unranked Chad Hanke of Oregon State 3-1 
        lost to  #4 seed Ryan Smith of Cal Poly for 5th place




285--J.T. Felix defeated Dylan Rush of Stanford 2-1
        defeated #1 seed Levi Cooper of Arizona State
         Felix lost to Clayton Jack of Oregon State 6-4.



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