Feb. 29, 2004
TEMPE, Ariz. - Three members of the Arizona State wrestling team reached the finals of the 2004 Pac-10 Wrestling Championships with another four Sun Devils still alive in the consolation brackets following the conclusion of the first day of action at the tournament held inside Wells Fargo Arena Sunday. As a team, the Sun Devils sit tied for third with Cal Poly (70.0 points) with Stanford in second one-half of one-point ahead (70.5). Boise State, the 2002 champion, is in the lead with 81 points.
Patrick Williams (Jr., Homestead, Fla.), the top seed at 149 pounds, scored a 7-3 decision over Cal State Fullerton's Brett Gordon in the semifinals to earn a place in the finals, as well as an automatic berth into the 2004 NCAA Championships. Williams will now face No. 3 seed Matt Cox of Cal Poly in the championship. Another Sun Devil seeded No. 1, Ryan Bader (So., Verdi, Nev.) had a tough bout with CSUF's No. 5 Landon Seefeldt in the semifinals, needing a takedown in the first overtime period to win, 3-1. Bader will now face No. 3 seed K.C. Walsh of Boise State in a rematch of the 197-pound title match of a year ago that Bader won, 2-1, in Boise.
ASU's third finalist is No. 3 seed Nick Frost (Sr., Tucson, Ariz.) at 184. Frost, who advanced to the finals with a 7-4 decision over Casey Phelps of BSU, will now compete in the finals against No. 4 seed Ryan Halsey of CPU. The bout will pit two men against one another that won conference gold one year ago. Frost took home the title at 165 last year while Halsey secured the 184 crown.
It was not all good news for the Sun Devils as a pair of semifinals fell in overtime bouts. At 174 pounds, No. 2 Ron Renzi (Sr., Burke, Va.) went up against Stanford's No. 3 Imad Kharbush. With the score tied at one at the end of regulation and neither man scoring in the sudden victory period, both men were able to escape bottom in the tiebreaker sessions, sending the bout to a second sudden victory period. In the extra stanza, Kharbush took Renzi down with 31 seconds remaining to win the bout and send Renzi to the consolations. At heavyweight, No. 3 Clifford Starks (Jr., Phoenix, Ariz.) also went into overtime tied at one with No. 2 Jamie Rakevich of Oregon State. After a scoreless sudden victory, Rakevich held Starks to the mat for the full 30 seconds before Rakevich escaped in the second session to win, 2-1.
In the consolation brackets, No. 4 Christian Staylor (Fr., Chesapeake, Va.) downed Zac Enoch of Portland State with a 14-3 major decision to setup his consolation semifinal bout with No. 2 Efren Ceballos of Cal State Bakersfield. The winner of the bout will wrestle for third place, and an automatic berth to the national tournament, while the loser will battle for fifth place later in the day. Jeremy Mendoza (So., Temecula, Calif.) won two matches in impressive fashion in the consolations of the 141 division. He opened the session with a fall at 2:21 over Johnny Lugo (Oregon) before winning a 13-3 major decision over No. 6 Kyle Larson (Oregon State) to earn a spot in the consolation semifinals where he will meet No. 4 Steve Esparza (CPU).
At 133 pounds, No. 3 Mike Simpson (Jr., Anaheim, Calif.) was handed a 5-0 decision loss to bounce the defending conference champion from the tournament. Simpson is the only one of five returning champions to not place this year. Brian Stith (Fr., Hampton, Va.) had his tournament ended in the consolations as he dropped a 7-2 decision at 157 to No. 4 Joey Bracamonte (UO).
The final day of competition opens Monday at 11 a.m. with consolation semifinals and third and fifth-place matches. The evening session will feature a Parade of Champions at 5:30 p.m. with the finals set for 6 p.m.