Beavers face tough test
November 13, 2015 | Wrestling
Corvallis, Ore. – Oregon State will take a major step up in competition on Sunday when it faces three ranked opponents in the Northeast Duals event at Troy, N.Y.
The 20th-ranked Beavers face No. 10 Nebraska at 8:15 a.m. (PST); No. 25 Northern Iowa at 10:15 a.m. and No. 19 West Virginia at 12:15 p.m. All told, 11 of the 16 entrants are ranked in this week's USA Today/National Wrestling Coaches Association Top 25 poll.
“This competition will give us a better idea of where we are at,” than the Nov. 8 Mike Clock Open at Pacific University, where the Beavers won all 10 weight classes by dominating Division III or junior-college opponents, coach Jim Zalesky said.
“I want to see our guys go out and compete hard. I like the way we wrestled [at Mike Clock]; I liked the effort, we wrestled hard. Now it's a much bigger step up in competition. How will we do against those guys?”
Only 10 wrestlers will travel. The projected starting lineup is Ronnie Bresser (125); Joey Palmer (133); Jack Hathaway (141); Joey Delgado (149); Abraham Rodriguez (157); Seth Thomas (165); Tyler Chay (174); Corey Griego (184); Cody Crawford (197), and Amarveer Dhesi (heavyweight).
Palmer, Hathaway, Delgado, Rodriguez, Thomas, Chay, Griego, Crawford and Dhesi all won their weight classes at the Mike Clock event; Bresser placed second.
“Amar, in his first matches in a year-and a-half, looked good. He stepped up,” Zalesky said, pinning three opponents in his first college matches since the 2014 NCAA meet, after missing 2015 with a knee injury.
“Griego looked good, Tyler [Chay] cemented that position for now, he looked good and beat everybody pretty badly. I thought all our guys did well.”
Even though it's early in the season three matches in the same day won't be a problem, Zalesky said.
“This time of year you want to get matches,” he said. “When you get down to the NCAAs or Pac-12s, you have three or four matches in one day so you have to be ready for it.”
Other teams at the tournament are Michigan (3), Lehigh (7), North Carolina State (12), North Carolina (13), Minnesota (16), Rutgers (17), Oklahoma (22), Buffalo, Hofstra, LIU Post (formerly CW Post), Springfield College, Binghamton, Army, Lock Haven, Sacred Heart and Nassau County (NY) Community College.
The Beavers will also send a contingent to Sunday's Roadrunner Open, hosted by CSU-Bakersfield at Selland Arena in Fresno.
Competing there are Kegan Calkins (125); Ronnie Stevens (133); Hans Rockwell (133); Jared Reis (141); Izaak Tobin (141); Alex Rich (141); Jay Tovey (149); Bryce Parson (149); Rodney Williams (157); Joseph DeMatteo (157); Kennen Lanteri (165); Francisco Castro-Guzman (165); Collbran Meeker (165) and Weston Dobler (174).
For more information on the Oregon State wrestling team, follow the club's official Twitter account at Twitter.com/OSU_Wrestling or by Facebook at Facebook.com/OregonStateWrestling.
