ASU Wrestling: #9 Sun Devils lose in final two bouts to Stanford

#9 Arizona State dropped to 4-9 (1-1 conf.) after falling to Stanford (7-1) on Saturday in Northern California.

The Sun Devils were down 10-0 early to the Cardinal after Josiah Kline (133 lb.), Cory Crooks (141 lb.) and Josh Maruca (149 lb.) all lost to start the afternoon. It was not until the 157 lb. bout when grad student #17 Christian Pagdilao picked up an overtime victory and put the Devils on the board.

Juniors #4 Josh Shields (165 lb.) and #2 Zahid Valencia (174 lb.) helped Arizona State take the lead away from Stanford in the following two rounds. Shields cruised to a 16-6 major decision over Jared Hill, and Valencia secured a 23-8 tech fall against Rico Stormer. Just like that, ASU was up 12-10 heading into the 184 lb. bout.

Senior, Jacen Petersen (wrestling up at 184 lb.), kept the party going with a 5-2 decision against Austin Flores. A takedown with short time in the final period helped Petersen come out on top.

As has been the case for the Sun Devils more than a couple of times this season, ASU struggled in the 197 and 285 lb. matches.

Keavon Buckley (285 lb.), the senior wrestling in the 197 lb. bout, only scored one point in his match with Stanford’s #9 Nathan Traxler. Traxler was in control the whole way scoring 17 total points and giving the Cardinal their first tech fall of the afternoon.

Going into the final two bouts, the score was all knotted up at 15 apiece.

Freshman heavyweight, Brady Daniel (285 lb.), lost 5-2 in a close match with Hayden Maley. A late takedown by Maley made it 3-1 with just under 45 seconds to go. Daniels was able to escape, but there was just not enough time.

Maley picked up the decision to put Stanford back on top 18-15 with one round to go.

Sadly, Brandon Courtney (125 lb.), failed to get a win for the Devils. The freshman secured a big takedown in the third period to put himself up 3-1, and after stalling was called on Stanford’s #20 Gabriel Townsell, it looked like Courtney might get a huge victory.

In a quick turn of events, Townsell was able to throw Courtney and win the bout 8-4. The final score was 21-15 Stanford. The last time the Sun Devils went on the road and beat the Cardinal at home was January of 2013.

Thankfully, Arizona State’s month-long road trip is officially over. The Devils will return to Wells Fargo Arena on Friday to take on #5 Missouri. The meet will start at 7:00 PM MT and will air on the Pac 12 Network.