Oregon State cruises to tenth win of the season

After upsetting No. 7 Oklahoma 22-12 last Thursday, head coach Jim Zalesky emphasized to his wrestlers to not have a letdown Sunday night against Air Force.

The message was heard loud and clear.

The Beavers (10-6, 2-2 Pac-12) shut out the Falcons (7-6, 1-3 Big 12) Sunday night 36-0 at Gill Coliseum. Oregon State won six decisions, three majors and earned one pin in the victory.

The match against Air Force marked the Beavers’ tenth win of the season, a streak Oregon State has accomplished for 17 straight seasons. The win also improved their record to 5-1 in their last six duals.

“After all our competition the past couple weeks, I wanted to make sure we didn’t have a letdown tonight,” Zalesky said. “I told the guys Air Force was going to come after us. They are at the academy for a reason—they are fighters.”

Oregon State only trailed in two matches of the night and their biggest deficit came in the 157-pound match where they trailed 9-7 midway through the third round.

Redshirt sophomore 197-pounder Cody Crawford started off the night earning an 8-5 decision and was then followed by No. 10 redshirt sophomore and heavyweight Amarveer Dhesi who won by major decision 18-6.

No. 7 sophomore 125-pounder Ronnie Bresser kept the momentum going by getting a 4-1 victory. Redshirt junior 133-pounder Joey Palmer earned a major decision victory of his own as he won 14-4.

The Beavers would rattle off three wins by decision by redshirt sophomore 141-pounder Jack Hathaway, redshirt junior 149-pounder Joey Delgado and redshirt sophomore 157-pounder Abraham Rodriguez.

Captain and senior 165-pounder Seth Thomas would collect the lone fall pin of the night where he pinned his opponent in the third round with 1:36 left on the clock.

Oregon State would finish the dual, garnering a decision from redshirt sophomore 174-pounder Tyler Chay and a major decision from redshirt freshman 184-pounder Corey Greigo.

Greigo was pleased with his performance but noted there are areas to improve upon.

“I wasn’t amped up as I needed to be to start the match,” Greigo said. “It’s something I need to improve on, but I think I wrestled alright. As a team though, I thought we wrestled great and put (Air Force) on their heels.”

Thomas was happy with the way his team wrestled, but indicated his team could wrestle better.

“We wrestled decent but it wasn’t our best performance,” Thomas said. “Although, it was important for us to get the win and keep on rolling.”

Zalesky was proud of the way his team wrestled and kept the pressure on all night.

“I think for the most part we wrestled pretty good,” Zalesky said. “I think we fought hard for all of our points and deserved the win.”

The Beavers are back in action Sunday, February 21, they will host their regular season finale against their Border War opponent, Boise State.