Four members of ASU wrestling took first place in the Daktronics Open in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Sunday. This follows a comeback win on Friday over Northern Colorado 24 to 19.
"Overall, it was a good performance for us," head coach Zeke Jones said. "I think we were the best conditioned team in the tournament and wrestled really hard. Although it was a successful weekend, I am cautious because we still made mistakes and still need to clean up several technical and tactical things."
The Sun Devils had nine wrestlers place among the top-5 over the weekend at Daktronics.
The first place finishers include redshirt freshman Josh Maruca in the 149-pound weight class, redshirt freshman Anthony Valencia and junior Jacen Petersen tied in the 165-pound weight class, redshirt freshman Zahid Valencia in the 174-pound weight class and sophomore Tanner Hall in the heavyweight division.
Redshirt freshman Josh Kramer finished fourth in the 125-pound class, junior Ali Naser took third in the 133-pound class, redshirt junior Oliver Pierce finished second in the 149-pound class, and lastly, redshirt freshman Josh Shields placed third in the 157-pound division.
"We competed tough," Jones said. "Really it's about getting better. I think we're ahead of the schedule for November but certainly not the team we need to be in March."
Some of that concern that Jones voiced about his squad was displayed in the Northern Colorado Open at Bank of Colorado Arena when the maroon and gold found themselves down 15 to 6 at halftime. ASU turned that deficit around by winning five of its last six matches.
Successful weekend with my Sun Devils and an even more successful post competition meal! #ElevateAll pic.twitter.com/NJLC7BQmUp
— Maddie Schossow (@MaddieSch_) November 7, 2016
Jones touched on the importance of getting back on the mat this week in practice to fix some of these little flaws.
"The focus this week will be eliminating mistakes and adding new skills to our wrestling," Jones said. "We still need to be better in the transition and need to add more set up routines to our hand fighting."
ASU will have another loaded competitive schedule next weekend for two tournaments in New York, both on Sunday. The Bearcat Open in Binghamton, New York and the Journeymen / Asics Collegiate Classic 2016 in Troy, New York will feature some of the best wrestling teams in the country.
The likes of Minnesota, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Oklahoma and West Virginia will be competing in the individual round-robin formatted tournament at the Journeymen Classic.
A look at Ohio State for ASU will help the Sun Devils scout and preview a highly-anticipated home match against the Buckeyes on Nov. 19 in Tempe, and vice versa.
This will be ASU's only nationally ranked team match of the remaining year. ASU is ranked 21st and OSU is ranked fourth as of Nov. 3, according to NCAA.com.
"San Diego State just knocked off the 18th ranked team in Iowa State on Friday," Jones said. "Every weekend matters and every match counts, no matter who it is."
Reach the reporter at thandlan@asu.edu or follow @Tyler_Handlan on Twitter.
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