Shawn Charles earned his first two wins at the helm of the ASU wrestling team this past weekend by beating a pair of Pac-10 opponents in dominating fashion.
A string of eight consecutive match victories finished off UC Davis 38-6 in the season opener on Friday, and nine-of-10 match wins gave the No. 20 Sun Devils a 37-4 victory over Cal State Fullerton on Sunday.
“We just built up the momentum and kept going,” Charles said.
Sunday’s match included a pin from ASU sophomore Kyle DeBerry (165 pounds) over Fullerton freshman Blake Ginsburg, a pin from ASU junior Ben Ashmore (133) over Fullerton Junior Eddie Garcia and technical fall from ASU junior Anthony Robles (125) over Fullerton junior Andre Gonzalez.
Sun Devil victories also came from senior Erik Nye (285), junior Chris Drouin (141), sophomore Eric Starks (174), sophomore Te Edwards (157), sophomore Vicente Varela (149) and sophomore Jake Meredith (184).
After falling behind early against UCD, the team stepped up to win eight consecutive matches.
Nye lost in the first match of the day 4-3 to UCD junior Ricky Alcala, but Robles, who is ranked No. 3 in the nation, dominated UCD freshman Mark Jay Acosta 20-3, and the Sun Devils never looked back.
Ashmore won his debut as a Sun Devil by forfeit in the following match, followed by victories from Drouin, Varela, Edwards, DeBerry, Starks and Meredith.
Pins by both Varela and Edwards put the Sun Devils ahead 28-3 with four matches remaining.
“It doesn’t matter who is in front of us,” Charles said. “We will just keep coming and coming.”
Reach the reporter at nathan.meacham@asu.edu.
