After the first day of matches, things haven’t gone as planned for the Sun Devils.
It isn’t all negative though, as only sophomore Robbie Mathers is the only one out of the six who was eliminated on Thursday and will not participate on Friday.
All-American redshirt senior Blake Stauffer came into today’s action as the No. 6 seed in the tournament and he faced Ohio State’s redshirt senior Kenny Courts to start his day.
The match was slow-paced, with neither wrestler taking any shots throughout the contest. It was all tied at one with 15 seconds remaining in the match. Stauffer, who was more defensive than usual, patiently waited for Courts to shoot in on him, and he did. Courts committed and Stauffer took advantage, getting behind him for the takedown with only a few seconds to spare. He barely won his match, 3-2.
In the second round, Stauffer faced No. 11 senior Lorenzo Thomas of Penn.
Stauffer fell behind early, getting taken down and getting put on his back for a four-point near fall in the first period, causing him to fall into a 6-0 hole after one. He was only able to muster one point in the second, and was taken down a couple more times, eventually being upset 10-1.
Despite his loss, Stauffer still is able to wrestle on, as he is now in the Wrestleback (consolation) bracket and will face Ohio’s Andrew Romanchik.
Senior Matt Kraus had a similar strategy to Stauffer, as he went into his first match in a defensive mind set.
He spent most of the match feeling out Buffalo’s redshirt freshman Colt Cotten, and he was able to get the 2-1 lead and hold it for the remainder of the match. He was getting stalling warnings near the end, but he was able to put it away.
Kraus faced a tough adversary in No. 4 redshirt junior Matthew Cimato of Drexel in the second round. It was another low-scoring match, but Kraus was on the wrong side of it, as he fell 3-2.
Next, Kraus will face freshman Davion Jeffries of Oklahoma Friday morning.
Senior Josh DaSilveira had a decent day, despite dropping his second match.
His first match, he faced an energetic No. 7 junior Brett Harner of Princeton. Harner nearly doubled-up DaSilveira, 13-7, but DaSilveira hung in and kept it close.
The next round, he faced Bryce Barnes of Army. DaSilveira earned takedown points after a coaches’ challenge in the second, and he was able to hang on for an exciting 4-3 victory.
DaSilveira will face redshirt junior Shawn Scott of Northern Illinois on Friday morning.
Junior Dalton Brady was the first Sun Devil to take the mat today, as he faced off against No. 6 George DiCamillo (UVA). It started off as a close match, with it being tied at three at the end of the first period. Things didn’t start to slip away from Brady until about 30 seconds remaining in the match.
DiCamillo took Brady down in the waning seconds of the match, and Brady ended up losing 8-4 in the first-round match. With that loss, his 11-match winning streak was snapped.
In the wrestleback bracket, Brady took on Northwestern junior Dominick Malone and pulled out a 7-4 victory to advance wrestle to Friday. He will face No. 12 redshirt junior Ryan Taylor of Wisconsin.
Freshman Tanner Hall had a huge obstacle to start the day, facing No. 3 redshirt junior Ty Walz of Virginia Tech. The two faced off earlier this year, with Hall dropping the bout, and this one seemed similar. Hall lost a hard-fought match to Waltz, 5-2
Hall won his second match via forfeit against No. 14 junior Blaize Cabell (UNI). He will face freshman William Miller of Edinboro Friday in the wrestlebacks bracket.
Mathers took on No. 14 sophomore Bryce Meredith of Wyoming, and didn’t look like himself, as he got majored 16-3. The next match looked promising, as he took a 6-5 lead heading into the final round against Purdue’s redshirt senior Danny Sabatello. Mathers obtained an 8-6 lead late in the third, but he gave up a takedown and he ended up getting pinned right before the match ended.
Mathers’ season is officially over. He accumulated a 22-13 record.
The Sun Devils are back in action tomorrow morning from Madison Square Garden. Despite ASU’s wrestlers’ hopes of getting first place getting tossed out the window, they still have something to fight for. The podium is still up for grabs.
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