ASU may not have won the Pac-12 championship as a team, but there were plenty of stand-outs on the mat today.
Five Sun Devils competed in the championship round for their respective brackets. Three went on to win.
Dalton Brady, one of the most dangerous wrestlers in the nation, went into the tournament as the No. 1 seed.
In the first round, Brady had his way with CSU Bakersfield’s Carlos Herrera in a 15-5 victory. In the second round, there was a little more pressure against Stanford’s Mason Pengilly. It was all tied at three until Brady pressed the B-button and made a Madden-like spin move to get the take down and hold on for the tough win.
Brady went against Oregon State's Joey Palmer in the championship round. Brady looked exhausted, not shooting at all until the waning seconds of regulation. The two ended up going into overtime tied at two.
Brady did not waste any time in overtime. He got the take down on Palmer 15 seconds into overtime to win the 133-pound championship.
“It’s exciting working with Coach Jones and all the work I put in,” Brady said. “I had all the injuries last year and I had all the injuries this year… I’m just doing whatever I can to get better.”
Reigning Pac-12 champion All-American Blake Stauffer was he was looking to withhold it the title his conference rivals.
Stauffer had a first round bye and started in the semi-finals. He took on Cal Poly’s Mitch Woods.
Stauffer threw Woods around the whole match, but at the end, Woods had enough of Stauffer tossing him around the mat. Woods started slapping Stauffer across the head and face during the last minute of the third round. The referee had to pull Woods aside at one point to tell him to cut it out. Stauffer won that match 11-1.
He then took on Oregon State’s Corey Griego in the final round. In the first round, the two were feeling each other out. There was just a lot of hand fighting, and the two were scoreless after one. Stauffer got more comfortable in the second, as he got a take down and a reversal to get the 4-1 lead after two.
Stauffer was noticeably tired in the third, but he managed to get a take down with 15 seconds remaining to get the 8-1 win.
“I don’t think conditioning was a huge factor in my match, I felt fine,” Stauffer said. "It’s something that we’re going to fine-tune going into the NCAA Championships.”
He was happy that he got the repeat championship here at the Pac-12’s, but there’s a much bigger goal.
“That’s just a stepping stone in my mind heading into the national tournament,” Stauffer said. “I’m a little disappointed, I was wanting to get the team title for the program.”
The final champion was Josh DaSilveira.
DaSilveira got an emphatic first-round pin against Boise State’s Kadyn Del Toro. Then he muscled his way past J.T. Goodwin of Cal Poly 12-3 In the second round. It was a very impressive win due to the fact that he never looked tired and he just kept coming at Goodwin.
In the final round, he faced CSU Bakersfield’s Reuben Franklin. DaSilveira looked just as strong as he did in his first two matches in the first two rounds, as he nearly pinned Franklin in the first. Things got very dicey in the final round, however.
DaSilveira was absolutely winded in the last period, receiving two stalling penalties to cut his lead down to 6-5.
“It felt forever, it felt forever I just remember Coach Pritts saying ‘if the time is there, sting ‘em’… and I grabbed the leg.” DaSilveira said.
In the last 20 seconds, DaSilveira was engulfed in yelling fans, both for and against him, all while Franklin was ferociously storming his defenses. DaSileveira was able to hold on to Franklin’s leg and ride it out for the 6-5 victory. As the referee was holding up his hand, he put his hand over his heart and pointed toward the adoring fans.
During the postgame press conference, an elated DaSilveira couldn’t hold back his emotions, as tears streamed down his face.
“I had a long wrestling career man, three different schools, I came a long way you know,” DaSilveira said. "It’s just for everybody man that’s kinda been there for me… I was always struggling, NC State, Iowa, here, I mean I could think 95 percent of wrestlers wouldn’t have taken the route I took, I took the hard way.”
After such an ecstatic win, he will never forget what his teammates, and his fans mean to him.
“These guys are here for me, I’ll do anything (for my teammates and fans)," DaSilveira said. "I’ll rip my ligaments out of my (expletive) heart if I could."
Matt Kraus made it to the final round after a solid performance in the semifinals, but he had trouble corralling Boise State’s Geo Martinez. Kraus fell 3-1. Martinez probably should’ve had reverse lights and a beeper, because all he was doing was backing up during the final round, but no stalling penalty was called.
Pierce had a solid win against No. 1 seed Abraham Gonzales in the semifinals. He held his arms up in the air, as he defeated the strongest wrestler in the wright class, but then he met Boise State’s Chris Castillo in the final.
The bout went nine overtimes, with points only coming from escapes, before Castillo rode Pierce across the mat in the final seconds of the match and defeating the Sun Devil.
ASU was just five points shy of uprooting OSU, who has now won five consecutive Pac-12 championships, but the Beavers' 118 points was too much for ASU to overcome.
“It’s a game of inches, and second doesn’t feel good,” head coach Zeke Jones said. “But we’re getting better and competing in the right way.”
Next up for the Sun Devils are the NCAA Championships in New York on March 17.
“We’re taking six on to the tournament, but we’re leaving four at home, and that hurts,” Jones said.
Note: Due to a reporting error, a quote from Jones was mistyped. It has been corrected.
Reach the reporter at benjamin.a.flores@asu.edu or follow @benflores21 on Twitter.
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