Pac-12 honors Zalesky, Dhesi
April 12, 2016 | Wrestling
SAN FRANCISCO – Oregon State's Jim Zalesky was named the Pacific-12 Conference Wrestling Coach of the Year and redshirt sophomore All-American heavyweight Amarveer Dhesi was named the Pac-12 Wrestler of the Year on Tuesday.
It's the fifth consecutive honor for Zalesky, and his sixth in the past seven seasons. The Beavers were 11-6 overall in 2015-16, captured their fifth consecutive Pac-12 championship, and placed 21st at the NCAA Championships, their best finish since 2013.
“It's more of a team and staff honor,” said Zalesky, who has captured seven conference championships in his 10-year tenure at OSU. “This year's team was a lot different than last year's. We had a lot of ups and downs.
“But when it came down to it, we found a way to have more ups, especially at the Pac-12 tournament. It was a team effort.
“Coaching is ups and downs, it depends on how you finish. We had one All-American and we won the Pac-12 tournament. We found a way to win when it probably looked like we were not going to win.”
Dhesi went 32-5 overall, took fifth at the NCAA Championships to earn his first All-America citation, and was named the Outstanding Wrestler of the Meet at the Pac-12 tournament after winning three matches en route to the individual title.
He was 16-1 record in duals, scored a team-leading 69 team points, led the team with 12 pins, and had winning streaks of 15 and 14 matches. He also took second place at the Canadian Olympic Trials at midseason.
He is the seventh Beaver to win the award, and the first since Les Gutches in 1996.
“It's a big step for him, because at the middle of the season he was down in the dumps because he didn't make the Canadian Olympic team,” Zalesky said. “Sometimes you have to fight through things and he had to fight through some personal adversity to get to be an All-American.
“He probably didn't finish as high [at NCAAs] as he wanted to but it gives him a head start for next year, and a lot of confidence. You have to have a season of growth, and to have the growth, you must have adversity.”
Stanford freshman 1412-pounder Joey McKenna was named the Newcomer of the Year. He was 27-3 overall, won the Pac-12 title and took third at NCAAs.
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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