Joey Palmer, Corey Griego, looking to continue recent success

After three weeks of preparation, Oregon State’s five wrestlers are in St. Louis, Mo. to compete at the NCAA wrestling championships.

Joey Palmer, 133 lbs, Jack Hathaway, 141 lbs, Joey Delgado, 149 lbs, Corey Griego, 197 lbs, and Cody Crawford, hwt., will be representing the orange and black at the tournament.

“They’ve had good training,” said head coach Jim Zalesky. “This is the best they’ve looked, and some of the best training we’ve had all year. We really haven’t had a lot of good training time since early January. We got refreshed and got a lot out of the last two or three weeks.”

Palmer and Griego enter the tournament after both winning their respective divisions at Pac-12s. Both will be looking to continue their success at the highest level.

“Man, Joey Palmer’s something else,” Griego said. “He’s a stud. I know he’s an All-American.”

For a team that didn’t have the season it wanted, Griego isn’t one to stop believing in his team. Griego was the one who said he was confident the team would beat highly-ranked Stanford, which they did. The 197-pounder also has faith in Crawford, the junior heavyweight.

“He’s seen a lot of the tougher guys, Cody’s ready,” Griego said. “He looks big and strong. I know Cody’s an all-American, Cody’s a stud.”

All of the wrestlers have been to the national tournament before and have some experience. However, there is always room to get better, especially when facing the top wrestlers.

“I think they’re wrestling as well as they have been all year, and this is the time to do that,” said associate head coach Kevin Roberts. “Once you get there, yeah, it’s gonna be a great competition, a lot of great wrestlers in the field. Pretty much everybody who’s there is there for a reason.”

Everyone is there for a reason including the five from OSU. But the goal isn’t accomplished simply by reaching the national tournament. Everyone must perform to his own highest potential and wrestle with heart and toughness.

“We’re going there to get to Saturday,” Zalesky said. “Wrestling Saturday morning, or even Saturday night would be ideal; I just want everybody weighing in a wrestling Saturday. That’s the goal for these five guys.”

Matches start Thursday and will continue through Saturday night. The tournament will be televised on ESPN. Follow the OSU Wrestling twitter account for live in-match updates throughout the tournament.

On twitter: @mitchmonge55