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The Sun Devils (6-10, 3-1 Pac-12) rolled right past the Cal Poly (0-9) on Friday night. Not only was it senior night at Wells Fargo, but it was also the Beauty and the Beast meet featuring Sun Devil Women’s Gymnastics. While the wrestlers duked it out with the Mustangs, the gymnasts took on the Oregon State Beavers.
The dual started with the 141 lb. bout featuring ASU’s Cory Crooks (141 lb.) and Cal Poly’s Wyatt Cornelison. The sophomore earned an 8-4 decision, and the Mustangs would go on to forfeit the 149 lb. match giving Arizona State an early 9-0 lead.
Grad student #12 Christian Pagdilao (157 lb.) got a 5-4 win over Brawley Lamer which kept the Devils’ momentum rolling.
The dynamic duo of juniors #4 Josh Shields (165 lb.) and #3 Zahid Valencia (174 lb.) tacked on another ten team points. Shields came through with an 18-6 major decision over Joe La Rosa before Valencia made quick work of Polytechnic’s Nathan Tausch. After a couple of takedowns and a four point near fall, Valencia secured a pin in just 1:26 inflating the lead to 22-0 entering the break.
Jacen Petersen (wrestling up from 165 lb.), one of nine seniors honored after the meet, picked up a decision against William DeBoer to give the team its sixth bout victory in a row.
Cal Poly finally got on the board after their #17 Tom Lane defeated senior Austyn Harris to make it 25-3 with three matches to go. The Mustangs won again in the heavyweight battle between Brady Daniel (285 lb.) and Samuel Aguilar with Aguilar scoring a 10-0 major decision over the freshman.
Ryan Millhof (125 lb.) returned tonight for the Sun Devils and snagged a 15-2 major decision win in his first time back on the mat since suffering an injury at the Midlands Championships in December.
The senior’s victory was followed up by a decision courtesy of #25 Josiah Kline (133 lb.). The sophomore beat Benny Martinez 11-6 to put the cherry on top of what was a blowout win for the Devils. The final score saw Arizona State coming out on top 32-7, their largest win of the season.
Sadly, the women were not quite as fortunate as the men. They lost by the slightest of margins to the Oregon State Beavers 196.650 to 196.625.
Arizona State Wrestling is hosting the Pac-12 Championships March 9 at Wells Fargo. All the action will air on the Pac-12 Network and gets underway at 7 PM MT.