Beavers announce ambitious schedule
September 24, 2015 | Wrestling
The Oregon State wrestling team will compete in all four time zones this season during an ambitious schedule that concludes with the NCAA Championships in New York City.
OSU begins Year 11 of the Jim Zalesky coaching era on Nov. 8 at the annual Mike Clock Open at Pacific University in Forest Grove. The home opener is set for Nov. 21, when the Beavers will host Utah Valley and Rutgers at Gill Coliseum.
The Beavers will also host Clackamas Community College (Dec. 18); Wyoming (Jan. 16); Northern Colorado (Jan. 31); Oklahoma (Feb. 13); Air Force (Feb. 14) and Boise State (Feb. 21).
“This schedule will test us and prepare us for the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments,” Zalesky said. “We are bringing quality opponents to Corvallis and will also face outstanding teams on the road.
“Going to Michigan for the Joe Wells Classic will be a great experience for our team. It will allow us to further honor a man who was so important to our program, and to Michigan's as well.”
The Feb. 21 Boise State dual, OSU's final tune-up before the Pac-12 Championships, will be televised by the Pac-12 Network. The Jan. 29 dual at Arizona State and the Feb. 27 Pacific-12 Conference Championships at ASU will also be televised.
OSU's other Pac-12 matchups are Feb. 4 at Stanford; Feb. 5 at Cal Poly, and Feb. 6 at Cal State-Bakersfield. The Beavers meet Boise State just once this season instead of the traditional home-and-home series with the Broncos.
The NCAAs, scheduled for March 17-19 at historic Madison Square Garden, are one of two trips the Beavers will make to the Empire State. They begin their dual-meet season on Nov. 15 with matches against West Virginia, Northern Iowa and Nebraska at the Northeast Duals in Albany, N.Y.
The inaugural Joe Wells Classic is Jan. 7 at Ann Arbor. It will honor the memory of the former OSU head coach and longtime Michigan assistant coach, who died earlier this year.
The annual Orange & Black intrasquad match is set for 7 p.m. Nov. 4 at Gill Coliseum.
The Beavers feature seven players who have qualified for NCAAs during their careers: Sophomore Ronnie Bresser (125); redshirt sophomores Jack Hathaway (141), Cody Crawford (197) and Amarveer Dhesi (hwt.); redshirt juniors Joey Palmer (133) and Joey Delgado (149), and senior Seth Thomas (165).
Bresser, Hathaway and Crawford all captured Pac-12 individual titles in 2015, leading the Beavers to their fourth consecutive conference championship. OSU went 12-1 overall, placed 30th at the 2015 NCAA Championships, and increased its all-time victory total to 1,011 duals, the third-most in NCAA Division I history.
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.
The 2015-16 schedule:
NOVEMBER: 4, Orange & Black intrasquad. 8, @ Mike Clock Open, Forest Grove. 15, @ Northwest Duals, Albany, N.Y. (vs. West Virginia, Northern Iowa, Nebraska). 21, Utah Valley; Rutgers.
DECEMBER: 4-5, @ Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. 18, Clackamas Community College. 29-30, @ Midlands Tournament, Evanston, Ill.
JANUARY: 7, @ Michigan. 9, @ Central Michigan. 16, Wyoming. 29, @ Arizona State. 31, Northern Colorado.
FEBRUARY: 4, @ Stanford, 5, @ Cal Poly. 6, @ CSU-Bakersfield. 13, Oklahoma. 14, Air Force. 21, Boise State. 27, @ Pac-12 Championships, Tempe.
MARCH: 17-19, @ NCAA Championships, New York City.
