OSU WRESTLING

Corvallis Gazette-Times

PRIMM, Nev. — Oregon State heavyweight Ty Watterson placed third, 174-pounder Jeremy Larson was fourth and 141-pounder Kyle Larson finished eighth on Saturday at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Collegiate wrestling tournament.

The Beavers placed 13th in the 47-team field; OSU was the second-highest placing team among the eight Pacific-10 Conference schools. OSU, unranked in the National Wrestling Coaches Association poll, finished ahead of No. 12 Cornell, No. 20 Cal Poly and No. 22 West Virginia.

Second-ranked Missouri was the team champion, followed by No. 8 Michigan in second place, No. 15 Pennsylvania in third, No. 18 Nebraska in fourth and Wisconsin in fifth. Of the teams in this week’s NWCA top 25, 13 were in the tournament field.

Watterson, ranked sixth in both the NWCA poll and by Amateur Wrestling News magazine, wrapped up third place with an 11-5 decision over Jon May of Nebraska. Watterson had won three times on Friday to reach the semifinals, then was defeated on Saturday morning by Tervel Dlagnev of Nebraska-Kearney in a 5-3 decision; Dlagnev is ranked No. 1 nationally in NCAA Division II.

Watterson then came back to take a 6-2 decision over Wade Sauer of Cal State Fullerton in the wrestleback semifinals before defeating May. Watterson, who had placed seventh in the tournament a year ago, is now 9-1 this season with five pins.

Jeremy Larson, unranked by the NWCA and ranked No. 12 by AWN, picked up two wins over wrestlers in the NWCA top 10 on Saturday but only one came on the mat. Larson began the morning by pinning Joey Hooker of Cornell in 2 minutes, 46 seconds; he then received a default victory over eighth-ranked Steve Luke of Michigan in the wrestleback quarterfinals.

Larson next took on sixth-ranked Kenneth Cook of UC Davis in the wrestleback semifinals, and Larson earned a decisive 8-2 victory. In the third-place final, Larson was edged by 17th-ranked Keith Gavin of Pittsburgh 6-5. Larson, who had reached the quarterfinals in the tournament’s championship backet, is now 10-2 with two pins this season.

Kyle Larson, who had reached the championship quarterfinals, also had a win over a top-10 wrestler as he began the day with a 10-6 overtime victory over 10th-ranked Jeffery Jaggers of Ohio State in the wrestleback fourth round. Larson then was defeated by Kyle Rushell of Wisconsin 8-4 in the wrestleback quarterfinals and dropped a major decision to 16th-ranked Charles Griffin of Hofstra 15-4 in the seventh-place final. This season, Larson is 8-3 with three pins.

TEAM SCORES, PACIFIC-10 SCORES (FIELD OF 47) n 1. (2) Missouri 157; 2. (3) Michigan 109; 3. (15) Pennsylvania 100.5; 4. (18) Nebraska 94; 5. Wisconsin 90.5; 6. (17) Indiana 89.5; 7. (23) Harvard 70; 8. Tennessee-Chattanooga 69.5; 9. (5) Hofstra 68; 10. (13) Ohio State 66; 12. California-Davis 60; 13. Oregon State 57.5; 15. (20) Cal Poly 49; 16. Stanford 57.5; 17. Arizona State 46.5; 19. Cal State-Fullerton 41.5; 27. Boise State 27; 29. Cal State-Bakersfield 22.5.

125, JAKE GONZALES: Major dec. over Greg EinFrank, Brown, 12-2 in first round; major dec. by (4) Tanner Gardner, Stanford, 9-0 in second round; dec. over Jamie Hernandez, Cal State-Fullerton, 10-3 in wrestleback second round; dec. by Collin Cudd, Wisconsin, 5-0 in wrestleback third round.

133, BOBBY PFENNIGS: Pinned Josh Manes, North Idaho JC, 1:50 in preliminary round; dec. by (6) Darrell Vasquez, Cal Poly, 4-2 in first round; dec. over Thomas Knapp, The Citadel, 6-1 in wrestleback preliminary round; major dec. over Matt Kim, Stanford, 10-1 in wrestleback first round; dec. by (16) Eric Albright, Virginia, 4-1 in wrestleback second round.

141, KYLE LARSON, EIGHTH PLACE: Pinned Bennie Garcia, Cal State-Fullerton, 6:15 in first round; dec. over Jake Kriegbaum, Air Force, 6-1 in second round; dec. by (2) Derek Moore, California-Davis, 11-7 in quarterfinals; dec. over (10) Jeffery Jaggers, Ohio State, 10-6 (OT) in wrestleback fourth round; dec. by Kyle Rushell, Wisconsin, 8-4 in wrestleback quarterfinals; major dec. by (16) Charles Griffin, Hofstra, 15-4 in seventh-place final.

149, DEREK KIPPERBERG: Dec. by Josh Wagner, Missouri, 10-8 in preliminary round; dec. by Rob Hitschler, Pennsylvania, 11-8 in wrestleback preliminary round.

157, KEEGAN DAVIS: Major dec. by (10) Matt Dragon, Pennsylvania, 15-1 in preliminary round; major dec. over Noomis Jones, Adams State, 12-4 in wrestleback preliminary round; dec. by Joe Ellenberger, Nebraska-Kearney, 4-3 in wrestleback first round.

165, BRETT ARAND: Major dec. by (8) Pat Pitsch, Arizona State, 9-1 in first round; dec. by Michael Mackie, Cornell, 9-3 in wrestleback first round.

174, JEREMY LARSON: Dec. over Randy Oates, George Mason, 7-4 in first round; dec. over Joe Lowe, North Carolina-Greensboro, 12-5 in second round; pinned by (1) Ben Askren, Missoui, 2:01 in quarterfinals; pinned Joey Hooker, Cornell, 2:46 in wrestleback fourth round; default over (8) Steve Luke, Michigan, in wrestleback quarterfinals; dec. over (6) Kenneth Cook, California-Davis, 8-2 in wrestleback semifinals; dec. by (17) Keith Gavin, Pittsburgh, 6-5 in third-place final.

184, KYLE BRESSLER: Tech. fall by (17) Rocco Caponi, Virginia, 16-0 (time n/a) in first round; dec. over Matt Geulinger, Brown, 6-1 in wrestleback preliminary round; dec. by Kane Smith, North Carolina-Greensboro, 4-1 in wrestleback first round.

197, TRAVIS GARDNER: Dec. by Harry Zander, George Mason, 14-12 in preliminary round; pinned Jared Boyer, Stanford, 3:03 in wrestleback preliminary round; dec. by Evan Mattingly, North Idaho JC, 4-3 in wrestleback first round.

HWT, (6) TY WATTERSON: Pinned Brandon Rupp, Western Wyoming JC, 4:22 in first round; dec. over Jeff Parker, Buffalo, 5-0 in second round; pinned Corey Morrison, 5:43, in quarterfinals; dec. by (1 DII) Tervel Dlagnev, Nebraska-Kearney, 5-3 in semifinals; dec. over Wade Sauer, Cal State-Fullerton, 6-2 in wrestleback semifinals; dec. over (9) Jon May, Nebraska, 11-5 in third-place final.