Palmer earns at-large NCAA berth
March 08, 2016 | Wrestling
Corvallis, Ore. – Oregon State 133-pounder Joey Palmer (pictured) earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Wrestling Championships on Tuesday.
A redshirt junior from Tahoma High School in Covington, Wash., Palmer was 24-10 in 2016 and placed second at the Pacific-12 Conference championships. It will be his second trip to NCAAs; he advanced at 125 pounds in 2014 as a sophomore and then redshirted in 2015.
Six Beavers qualified for this year's championships, scheduled for March 17-19 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Associate head coach Troy Steiner, a former NCAA champion (Iowa, 1992) who regularly trains with Palmer, said they were on pins and needles until his selection was announced shortly after 2 p.m.
“You never know, when you leave it in the committee's hands,” Steiner said. “We felt he had a pretty good shot, we thought he'd earned the right to be there, but you never know when you're on the bubble.”
Palmer was 0-2 at the 2014 NCAAs, but even though he lost that experience, and a redshirt year in which he got bigger and stronger, should benefit him. He was ranked No. 20 by The Open Mat in its season-ending poll; he was as high as No. 16 earlier in the year, and also cracked InterMat's rankings several times.
“Getting a second chance, essentially, should help him be ready,” Steiner said. “He only had one bad loss, when he got pinned at the Midlands in the first period, but everyone else he lost to was a good opponent.”
Palmer was 5-8 against other NCAA 133-pound qualifiers, with three of those losses by one or two points. He was ranked 12th in the final Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) rankings.
“He's learned from those situations,” Steiner said. “So he should be able to go to NCAAs and do something.”
Palmer will join redshirt freshman Corey Griego (184, 23-10), sophomore Ronnie Bresser (125, 28-7), redshirt sophomore Amarveer Dhesi (hwt., 27-3), redshirt junior Joey Delgado (149, 23-12) and senior Seth Thomas (21-9) at the NCAAs.
Two other Beavers remained in InterMat's and The Open Mat's national rankings in their respective weight classes on Tuesday when InterMat released its weekly top 20.
Dhesi moved up one spot to No. 7 in InterMat's rankings. He was the Outstanding Wrestler at the Pacific-12 Conference championships. He was No. 8 in The Open Mat's final poll, up one spot from the previous week.
Bresser remained No. 7 in InterMat's rankings, but slipped from No. 7 to No. 11 in The Open Mat's rankings after taking second at the Pac-12 championships.
The Beavers (11-6) stayed No. 21 in InterMat's team rankings, and moved up three spots to No. 20 in InterMat's tournament rankings.
There was no new USA Today/NWCA Top 25 poll. The Beavers were No. 22 in the Feb. 23 rankings.
Bresser was ranked No. 10 and Dhesi No. 11 in the weekly rankings released by the Amateur Wrestling News.
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.
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