Beavers host Clackamas CC
December 17, 2015 | Wrestling
The Oregon State wrestling team will conclude the dual-meet portion of the calendar year on Friday by hosting Clackamas Community College in a 7 p.m. matchup at Gill Coliseum.
It will be the first dual for the unranked Beavers (2-3) in nearly a month, since they fell to Rutgers and Utah Valley at home on Nov. 21. Their most recent competition was Dec. 4-5, when they placed 24th at the Las Vegas Cliff Keen Invitational.
Clackamas (8-1) is one of the premier junior college programs in the country. The Cougars placed second at the 2015 national tournament, took third in 2014, have won back-to-back NWCA National Dual Meet Championships, and captured the 2011 national championship.
The Cougars have not finished lower than eighth place at the national tournament under ninth-year coach Josh Rhoden and they have produced 70 National Qualifiers, 42 All-Americans, six National Champions, and 59 Academic All-Americans during his tenure.
They are ranked No. 4 in the most recent NJCAA Top 25 poll, released on Dec. 15. Their starting 141-pounder, freshmen Zech Bresser, is the younger brother of OSU sophomore 125-pounder Ronnie Bresser.
“Josh does a great job up there,” OSU coach Jim Zalesky said. “We were looking for competition and they were willing to come down and compete with us. It's a good chance for us to get out and compete again” before taking a short holiday break.
Zalesky said OSU will enter its regular lineup. Many of the reserves will compete at the Reno Tournament of Champions on Sunday.
“We have some guys who need to get back on track; we're not on track and have not had a great team performance yet. We're looking for consistency and the only way to get that is to compete.
“I hope to see some improvement. We had finals (Dec. 7-11) and now have had a good week of practice,” without any academic distractions. “We have to step up our game and compete like we are capable.”
Most of the Beavers will re-assemble in Corvallis on Dec. 26 and head for the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships in Evanston, Ill., the following day. Zalesky plans to take 14 or 15 competitors back to that tournament, set for Dec. 29-30 at Northwestern University's Welsh-Ryan Arena.
“The training we're doing now will prepare us for the Midlands,” which OSU last entered in 2012, he said. “It's a good tournament and we will see a lot of the top guys, and top-notch individual competition.”
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.
Projected matches:
125: Ronnie Bresser (OSU) vs. DeVaughn Sapien (CCC)
133: Joey Palmer (OSU) vs. Michael Knoblauch (CCC)
141: Jack Hathaway (OSU) vs. Zech Bresser (CCC)
149: Joey Delgado (OSU) vs. Christopher Garcia (CCC)
157: Abraham Rodriguez (OSU) vs. Brandon Davidson (CCC)
165: Seth Thomas (OSU) vs. Tommy Brewster (CCC)
174: Ali Alshujery/Tyler Chay (OSU) vs. Brendan Harkey (CCC)
184: Corey Griego (CCC) vs. Haszell West (CCC)
197: Cody Crawford (OSU) vs. John Morin (CCC)
Hwt.: Amarveer Dhesi (OSU) vs. Brandon Johnson (CCC)
