Gazette-Times

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Oregon State’s Ty Watterson won a matchup of nationally ranked heavyweights and the 19th-ranked Beavers beat Cal Poly 33-12 in Pacific-10 Conference wrestling Sunday afternoon at Mott Gym.

OSU (14-2, 6-1) also got pins from 125-pounder Eric Stevenson and 141-pounder Kyle Larson in the win while 149-pounder Derek Kipperberg, 165-pounder Dan Brascetta and 174-pounder Jeremy Larson all earned major decisions.

Oregon State concludes its dual meet season next weekend. The Beavers wrestle at Oregon on Friday at 7 p.m. OSU will be at home Feb. 11 at noon against North Dakota State and Stanford.

Against Cal Poly (5-8, 4-3), Oregon State responded well after a Friday night defeat at UC Davis that saw the Beavers lose three matches by one point and another in overtime. OSU saw wins slip away in the closing seconds of three of those matches.

“We talked about finishing matches, finishing our holds, and we did a better job than we did the other day,” OSU coach Jim Zalesky said. “We got a lot of bonus points today, and getting those are huge when it comes to tournament time.”

Watterson, ranked second in the Pac-10 and seventh nationally by the National Wrestling Coaches Association, scored a 7-4 decision over Cody Parker, who was ranked first in the Pac-10 and 14th nationally. The victory gives Watterson the inside track to the No. 1 seeding in the Pacific-10 Championships.

Another matchup of the two wrestlers atop the Pac-10 rankings was at 133 pounds. The Mustangs’ Darrell Vazquez, ranked sixth nationally and first in the conference, pinned OSU’s Bobby Pfennigs, ranked second in the conference, in 3:41. Pfennigs is now 21-6 with four pins this season.

OSU 174-pounder Jeremy Larson, ranked 19th nationally, took a 15-7 major decision over Ernie Varlea by recording three takedowns in the second period and adding two more in the third. Larson improved to 23-6 with four pins this season.

(19) Oregon State 33, Cal Poly 12

(Current Amateur Wrestling News national rankings in parentheses)

157 n Chase Pami, CPU, dec. Keegan Davis, OSU, 9-4. 165 n Dan Brascetta, OSU, major dec. Evan Barbre, CPU, 15-7. 174 n (19) Jeremy Larson, OSU, major dec. Ernie Varlea, CPU, 15-7. 184 n Yuri Calkia, CPU, dec. Kyle Bressler, OSU, 6-2. 197 n Travis Gardner, OSU, by forfeit. HWT n (7) Ty Watterson, OSU, dec. (14) Cody Parker, CPU, 7-4. 125 n Eric Stevenson, OSU, pinned Josh Obergon, CPU, 2:03. 133 n (6) Darrell Vazquez, CPU, pinned Bobby Pfennigs, OSU, 3:41. 141 n (20) Kyle Larson, OSU, pinned David Christian, CPU, 6:25. 149 n Derek Kipperberg, OSU, major dec. Eric Maldonado, CPU, 11-2