Beavers Welcome Cal Baptist, Little Rock This Weekend

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State Wrestling hosts back-to-back duals in Gill Coliseum this weekend, facing off with Cal Baptist on Friday night before grappling with conference opponent Little Rock on Saturday afternoon.

The Beavers are coming off of two losses against conference opponents Cal Bakersfield and Stanford last weekend and ae looking to snap a four-meet losing streak overall. Brandon Kaylor continued his hot streak this past weekend he picked up two decisions and improved to 14-5 on the season. Devan Turner bounced back and won both his bouts this weekend after earning two decisions last weekend including an overtime win against Stanford's Gabe Townsell.

MEDIA
Saturday's match against Little Rock begins at 1 p.m. PT and will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks. Rich Burk will be on the call and Ken Chertow will provide analysis. Live updates for all Oregon State wrestling matches can be found on Twitter @BeaverWrestling.

IN THE RANKINGS:
Devan Turner improved to No. 10 in the Track Wrestling Rankings after picking up two decisions last weekend including an overtime win against Stanford's Gabe Townsell. Turner is also slated at No. 14 (FloWrestling), 15 (TheOpenMat) and 17 (Intermat)

Brandon Kaylor entered this week's rankings after an impressive weekend in California as he earned a 5-2 decision and a narrow 8-7 decision. The redshirt freshman is finding his groove as of late, also sitting at No. 30 by the Open Mat and No. 33 by TrackWrestling.

Grant Willits has picked up wins in seven of the last eight dual meets and is ranked at No. 25 by both the OpenMat and FloWrestling.

BROTHERLY LOVE
Head Coach Jim Zalesky faces off against some friendly competition on Friday as his brother, Lennie, is the head coach of the Cal Baptist wrestling team – a position he has held since 2011.

Similarly to his brother, Lennie was a standout wrestler at the University of Iowa in the early 1980s. He was a three-time All-American wrestler at Iowa and helped the Hawkeyes to four straight national championships.

Oregon State Head Coach J. Zalesky wrestled for Iowa in the early 1980s and was a four-time All-American and three-time NCAA champion at 158 pounds, ending his Hawkeye career with an 89-match winning streak.

SCOUTING THE COMPETITION:
Cal Baptist is currently 3-8 overall and last dropped a 21-17 dual loss to Sacred Heart. Highlighting the roster at 149 pounds is A.J. Raya who owns an 18-5 record with a 8-3 mark in dual meets. At heavyweight, Zach Schrader has a record of 19-2 and has won all 11 of his dual bouts.

The Little Rock Trojans are entering their inaugural season as a division one wrestling program, coming in as the sixth team to join the Pac-12 Conference. So far, Little Rock is 1-6 this year with their lone victory coming over Ozarks back in late November.

LAST TIME OUT: The Beavers dropped a 22-12 dual loss to No. 21 Stanford on Feb. 9, in Stanford, California. Brandon Kaylor earned his second win of the weekend on a 8-7 decision while Lane Stigall earned a ranked win at 149 pounds.

OSU PROBABLES (5-6, 0-2 Pac-12)
125: No. 33 Brandon Kaylor (14-5)
133: No. 10 Devan Turner (21-9)
141: No. 25 Grant Willits (18-8) OR Conner Noonan (9-7)
149: Lane Stigall (15-12)
157: Logan Meek (2-13)
165: Aaron Olmos (9-12)
174: Jackson McKinney (4-13)
184: Colt Doyle (15-8) OR Colton Beisley (2-11)
197: J.J. Dixon (12-12)
HWT: Jamarcus Grant (14-15)

LITTLE ROCK PROBABLES (1-6, 0-1 Pac-12)
125: Jayden Carson (1-4)
133: Paul Bianchi (10-5)
141: Conner Ward (6-11)
149: Tyler Brennan (9-11)
157: Jose Champagne (5-9) OR Tommy Lisher (3-8)
165: Will Edgar (3-10)
174: Cash Jones (6-5) OR Tristan Tadeo (0-11)
184: Matthew Muller (2-14)
197: Dylan Johnson (3-12)
HWT: Drake Barbee (0-2)

Follow Us on Social
For more information on the Oregon State wrestling team, visit OSUBeavers.com or follow the team's official Twitter account at Twitter.com/BeaverWrestling, on Facebook at Facebook.com/BeaverWrestling, or on Instagram at Instagram.com/BeaverWrestling.

OUR MISSION
Oregon State Athletics strives to Build Excellent Authentic Visionary Student-Athletes (Go BEAVS).

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Players Mentioned

Colton Beisley

J.J. Dixon

Colt Doyle

Jamarcus Grant

Brandon Kaylor

Jackson McKinney

Logan Meek

Conner Noonan

Aaron Olmos

Lane Stigall

Devan Turner

Grant Willits