Meeks, Bresser Seeded for NCAAs
– The Oregon State wrestling team will have two seeded competitors next week when it heads to the Heartland for the 2015 NCAA Championships at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
Senior 184-pounder Taylor Meeks (35-4) was seeded fifth and freshman 125-pounder Ronnie Bresser (32-5) was seeded 10th on Wednesday when the first-round pairings for the March 19-21 event were released by the NCAA.
“It’s what we expected,” OSU coach Jim Zalesky said. “Taylor and Ronnie were seeded and after that the other guys just get drawn in and you will face a seeded guy right away.
“That’s what we have. You just take one match at a time, you don’t look at the bracket. You just prepare for that first match. All the matches are tough at this level.”
Zalesky said the Beavers will need a “show-me” attitude in the Show-Me State, and prove their worth on college wrestling’s biggest stage
“You have to be ready, it doesn’t matter who you wrestle,” he said. “If you plan to do something in the tournament, there are no gimmies. You have to go ready to wrestle, wrestle the same way you have all year and wrestle your best.”
Meeks (35-4) will face Thomas Sleigh (30-16) of Bucknell. Bresser (32-5) meets Nick Herrmann (15-7) of Virginia.
OSU’s other first-round matchups are:
· 133: Redshirt freshman Jack Hathaway (28-10) vs. fifth-seeded Zane Richards (23-6) of Illinois.
· 157: Senior Alex Elder (31-10) vs. 11th-seeded Brian Murphy (26-10) of Michigan.
· 165: Junior Seth Thomas (25-15) vs. 15th-seeded Ethan Ramos (28-8) of North Carolina. Ramos defeated Thomas by major decision at the Roadrunner Open on Nov. 16.
· 174: Senior Joe Latham (21-16) vs. fourth-seeded John Eblen (26-5) of Missouri.
· 197: Redshirt freshman Cody Crawford (31-8) vs. 12th-seeded Timothy McCall (21-11) of Wisconsin.
Redshirt freshmen Devin Reynolds (141) and Abraham Rodriguez (149) did not receive at-large bids. Reynolds (23-9) finished third at the Pac-12 Championships and lost in a challenge match for true second place; Rodriguez (26-12) took second but was defeated in the challenge match for true second.
“They might have been close, but they had an opportunity” to earn an automatic berth at the Pac-12 Championships. “You have to punch your own ticket, and we didn’t do it.
“You leave it other people’s hands, and if you leave it up to other people’s results … hey, those other guys probably had more deserving results than we did during the year. We have to take care of business when we have the opportunity.”
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.
