Oregon State wrestling hashed out their final regular season meet against the North Carolina Tar Heels in Gill Coliseum on a Sunday afternoon and would secure victory even before the meet officially ended. 

The Beavers upset the No. 15 Tar Heels 22-14 and ended their season with a three-match win streak.

“I’m very proud of the team and the coaching staff,” head coach Chris Pendleton said. 

The meet began with an unusual start at the 197-pound match. Trey Munoz, who made his return to the lineup last week in Oregon State’s meet against Cal Poly, brought a rather embarrassing loss upon his opponent Robert Platt by decision. 

Platt either seemed to sustain an injury or run out of steam. He received multiple stalling warnings and could only seem to put effort into getting back to his feet or holding his arm up to keep Munoz away. 

This allowed Munoz to pile up takedowns while never slowing down his pace and not even bothering to engage when his opponent started the period on the bottom.

“I think wrestling Trey (Munoz) makes a lot of people feel that way,” Pendleton said.

The following match in the heavyweight match seemed to be the polar opposite from the previous. 

Senior Brett Mower was able to obtain points early, but was unable to outpace Nolan Neves. Pendleton did challenge one of Neves’s takedowns, but this made a minor difference in his decision victory by more than ten points. 

Mower was unable to find an opening in the hand-fighting aspect to gain any more takedowns.

With the Beavers holding a one-point lead after the first two matches, they then looped back to the 125-pound match. 

Maximo Renteria displayed impressive positional awareness and patience. He never had a huge lead over his opponent, but he used his legs while on the ground to gain leg control and almost placed his opponent in a pinning position multiple times.

Renteria held a 5-3 lead going into the third. He accidentally placed himself into a position that had him upside down hanging on his opponent’s back. This allowed Tar Heels’ Spencer Moore to gain prominent leg control and score a takedown that would give him the lead. 

Renteria was able to gain an escape and send it to overtime, where he would find himself in the same upside-down position that allowed Moore to win by a takedown in overtime.

Following, the 133-pound bout brought the debut of Gage Singleton taking on Ethan Oakley. 

Singleton got the crowd fired up fast, showing some of the fastest and strongest shot attempts seen in the meet. He acquired an early lead using a constant attack on the waist of Oakley. 

However, Oakley turned up his pace in the latter half of the match and took back a victory by decision, giving the Tar Heels an 11-5 lead.

“He’s a small 125-pounder up at 133, and against a guy at number 11 in the country, I was upset because I thought he should have won the match,” Pendleton said. 

Freshman Nash Singleton’s 141-pound match went scoreless in the first period. 

Later on, Singleton would gain waist control and even hoist his opponent in the twice, but was unable to capitalize. Going late into the third period the only points scored would be one escape by each wrestler, sending another match to overtime. 

Singleton nearly ended the match in the first OT period by using his strength to stand up from the bottom position while securing his opponent’s leg, but time would run out before a takedown could be secured. 

In the fifth period, Singleton would escape from the bottom position to give himself the lead. The second tiebreaker would have Jayden Scott starting from the bottom, where Singleton would hold him long enough for time to secure the win by one point for Oregon State’s second victory.

141 pounds would see a top ten matchup with number five ranked Lachlan Mcneil taking on Beaver freshman Ethan Stiles, who has climbed to the number nine spot in his weight class. Both performed well to limit takedown opportunities and kept it tied going into third. With a clutch escape point, Stiles was able to run out the clock to claim the win 4-3. 

This would tie the meet score at 11.

CJ Hambin at 157-pounds would then break that tie with an impressive 4-3 win by decision. 

Hamblin’s show of speed was a key factor in his victory, shown by an acrobatic spin out of a single-leg suspension, as well as launching himself into a head-first shot that got him a takedown.

Despite having a 0-3 record at 165-pounds, Charlie Darracott showed to be worthy competition for Oregon state Kekena Fouret at first. 

However, Fouret used the top position to his advantage to set up grapples from the bottom. This allowed him to lock in a cradle twice during the match and secure a victory by decision.

With a lead somewhat secured for the Beavers, it was up to grad student Sean Harman to put a comeback out of reach in his 174-pound match. With seven leg shot takedowns throughout the match, he did just that. His victory put the Beavers up 22-11, leaving no possibility for UNC to come back for a victory.

In the final match at 184-pounds, it would be freshman TJ Mcdonnel to secure it for Oregon State. 

With nothing to lose, both wrestlers used their time under the lights well, going into the third period tied at six. It would be Gavin Kane taking the victory by decision by being able to keep Mcdonnel on the mat for the majority of the third.

Now with the regular season settled, the Beavers will now prepare for the Pac-12 championships, which will take place on March 6, 2025.