Oregon State
Pacific-10 Championships
OSU Puts Three Wrestlers In Finals
February 29, 2004 | Wrestling
Feb. 29, 2004
TEMPE, Ariz. - Oregon State 165-pounder Matt Ellis, 174-pounder Jed Pennell and heavyweight Jamie Rakevich will all wrestle for the championship of their weight classes when the Pacific-10 Championships conclude Monday night at Wells Fargo Arena. OSU 149-pounder Tony Hook and 184-pounder Dan Pitsch are both alive in the wrestleback bracket and could place as high as third.
OSU was in seventh place in the team standings after Sunday's first day of action, just six points out of fourth place. Boise State is in the lead with 81 points.
"It was a very disappointing day," Oregon State head coach Joe Wells said. "To be a factor for the championship, we had to have some of our guys at the lighter weights in play; they were seeded against some good guys but we thought they could come through the back door and get several of them qualified. We just didn't wrestle well enough for that to happen."
Ellis, seeded No. 1 at 165 pounds, moved his winning streak to 17 straight matches with three victories on Sunday. He'll wrestle second-seeded Christian Arellano of Cal State-Bakersfield in the finals; Ellis beat Arellano 2-0 in the Reno Tournament of Champions and 14-3 in a dual meet earlier this season.
Pennell, seeded No. 1 at 174 pounds, has won 15 straight matches at that weight after winning twice on Sunday. Pennell will go against third-seeded Imad Kharbush of Stanford in the finals; Pennell beat Kharbush 8-6 in a dual meet earlier this season.
Rakevich, seeded No. 2 at heavyweight, will go against top-seeded Jacob McGinnis of Boise State in the finals. McGinnis beat Rakevich 2-1 in a dual meet a week ago.
"It's nice having those three guys in the finals," Wells said. "Matt wrestled smart, Jed wrestled solid and Jamie wrestled smart. They did a good job all the way through."
The top three finishers at each weight class will earn automatic berths to the NCAA Championships, then the Pac-10 coaches will meet to determine 11 wild-card entrants from among the other wrestlers.
The Beavers lost one wrestler to an injury when 157-pounder Orlando Perez hurt a knee in his first match and had to drop out of the tournament.
OREGON STATE AT PACIFIC-10 CHAMPIONSHIPS
TEAM SCORES: 1. Boise State 81; 2. Stanford 70.5; 3. (tie) Arizona State and Cal Poly 70; 5. Cal State-Bakersfield 63.5; 6. Cal State-Fullerton 60; 7. Oregon State 57.5; 8. California-Davis 49; 9. Oregon 34.5; 10. Portland State 11.5.
125, ERIC STEVENSON-Dec. by No. 2 Efren Ceballos, CSUB, 9-4 in quarterfinals; dec. by Joey Lucas, UO, 5-3 in wrestleback preliminary round.
133, TIM NORMAN-Dec. by No. 1 Darrell Vasquez, CPU, 11-5 in quarterfinals; dec. over Lucas Hambleton, PSU, 7-4 in wrestleback preliminaries; tech. fall by No. 4 Jason Harless, UO, 5:31 (22-4) in wrestleback quarterfinals.
141, Kyle Larson, NO. 6 SEED-Major dec. by No. 3 Juan Mora, CSUF, 13-3 in quarterfinals; major dec. by Jeremy Mendoza, ASU, 13-3 in wrestleback quarterfinals.
149, Tony Hook, NO. 2 SEED-Dec. over Nick Budeski, BSU, 3-2 (OT) in quarterfinals; dec. by No. 3 Matt Cox, CPU, 6-4 in semifinals.
157, ORLANDO PEREZ-Major dec. by No. 2 Ben Cherrington, Boise State, 13-4 in quarterfinals; med. fft. To No. 6 Dustin Vance, CSUF, in wrestleback quarterfinals.
165, Matt Ellis, NO. 1 SEED-Dec. over Risto Martinen, CSUF, 3-1 in preliminaries; major dec. over
Devin Mair, PSU, 13-4 in quarterfinals; dec. over No. 4 Brian Perry, SU, 6-2 in semifinals.
174, Jed Pennell, NO. 1 SEED-xPinned Josh Gustafson, PSU, 2:06 in quarterfinals; dec. over
No. 4 Leonel Sanchez, CSUF, 5-2 in semifinals.
184, Dan Pitsch, NO. 1 SEED-Major dec. over Dustin Fisher, UO, 13-4 in quarterfinals; pinned by No. 4 Ryan Halsey, CPU, 2:04 in semifinals.
197, JED LOWE-Major dec. by No. 1 Ryan Bader, ASU, 11-0 in quarterfinals.
HWT, Jamie Rakevich, NO. 2 SEED-Pinned Dan Schon, UCD, 4:08 in quarterfinals; dec. over No. 3 Clifford Starks, ASU, 2-1 in semifinals.
