On a night where the seniors and their families got together before the match started and were applauded at center mat, the Sun Devils did not disappoint.
Video: All-American senior Blake Stauffer was recognized with his family on Senior Night, Jan. 29, 2015
After strong performances from sophomores Robbie Mathers and Christian Pagdilao, senior Matt Kraus took center stage for his last tilt at Wells Fargo Arena during the regular season.
Kraus was up 9-6 after two periods of action, but fatigue started to play a factor in third round. His opponent, Abraham Rodriguez, kept lunging at Kraus and got a couple takedowns, but Kraus was able to hold on for an 11-8 victory.
“I got a little tired in that match, but I think it’s more so that I weighed in at 149 pounds and wrestled at 157, so the guy was a little bigger than me,” Kraus said. “It’s not that that had much to do with it, but obviously conditioning was a little bit of a factor there.”
The next senior to go for the Sun Devils was all-American red shirt senior Blake Stauffer. Stauffer fell behind early, getting taken down by Corey Griego, but the No. 6 ranked wrestler in the nation wouldn’t falter. He responded right back with an escape and a takedown of his own to take a 3-2 lead at the end of the first period. Stauffer had his way the rest of the match, winning it 6-4.
“To me, it was a special moment to share with (my family), but I try not to get to caught up in that,” Stauffer said.” Ultimately, it’s cool to have them here for the last one.”
The last senior to take the mat for ASU was 197-pound Josh DaSilveira. The two wrestlers were getting a feel for one another in the first round, but after that, fireworks nearly went off. DaSilveira nearly got himself a pin, but his opposition was saved by the bell as the second period came to a close. He did not come away empty-handed though, as he received four points for a near-fall and he ended up taking the match by a score of 5-1, to give ASU a commanding 24-6 lead over No. 20 Oregon State with one match to go.
“It was a good win, but like I said this isn’t the last one,” DaSilveira said. “We don’t train for Oregon State, we train for March, you know, when the big show comes on.”
Head coach Zeke Jones was proud of his seniors on Senior Night, as he had high praise for them
“As we went into the huddle in the backroom, I said 'seniors this will be the last time you’ll ever wrestle in Wells Fargo Arena, what do you think of that?'" Jones said. “And you could look in their eyes and see… a moment where they realized, wow this is the last time, and I want to go out the right way.”
The night didn’t end very glamorously, however, between the heavyweights ASU freshman Tanner Hall and Oregon State redshirt sophomore Armaveer Dhesi.
Hall and Dhesi met earlier this year at the Midlands Championships. Dhesi was undefeated going into the bout, only to be bounced by Hall 6-5 in the quarter-finals.
Dhesi seemed to want blood, pushing Hall and glaring at him between rounds. Dhesi exclaimed at Hall to get up and shake his hand after he was brutally slammed down just before the final buzzer sounded, when the match was virtually over.
With the Pac-12 Championships approaching on Feb. 27, Jones was asked if he wanted to talk about the animosity of the heavyweight bout.
“We’ll talk about it February 27,” he said.
