Arizona State Pounds Portland State 36-9 In Home Opener
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Alex Ryan (Arizona State Sports Information)
12/05/2002
TEMPE, Ariz. - The No. 10 Arizona State wrestling team got wins at seven weight classes, including three forfeit victories and leveled its season record to 2-2 overall after handing visiting Portland State a 36-9 defeat Thursday night inside Wells Fargo Arena. ASU also moved to 1-0 in the conference while PSU dropped its season opening dual of the year. Kellan Fluckiger (Sr., Preston, Idaho) pinned his opponent and Nick Frost (Jr., Tucson, Ariz.) finished the dual with a technical fall win to propel the Sun Devils to the 399th dual win in school history. The dual opened with #13 Curtis Owen (Sr., Coeur D'Alene, Idaho) picking up his first dual win of the year after scoring a 15-3 major decision over Quinn Collett. Owen dominated early, parlaying an 8-1 first period lead into a 4-0 team lead for the Sun Devils. After Ron Renzi (Jr., Burke, Va.) won on a forfeit at 184, ASU was ahead 10-0 heading into the 197 bout. At 197, Ryan Bader (Fr., Verdi, Nev.) also won his first dual of the year with a 10-4 major decision that stretched the Sun Devil advantage to 13-0. No. 4 Fluckiger, not originally slated to compete in the dual, came out at heavyweight and picked up another win for the Sun Devils. After starting slowly and allowing his opponent to take him down, Fluckiger slammed his foe, Justin Snoderly, to the mat and pinned him at 2:43 to give the home team a 19-0 lead. PSU got its first win of the night when Casey Kotter took ASU's Adam Chavira (Sr., Parker, Ariz.) to overtime and then scored on a takedown with 30 seconds remaining in the extra period. With the team score still in favor of ASU, 19-3, the Vikings scored their second win in a row when Zac Enoch defeated Mike Simpson (So., Anaheim, Calif.), 3-2, to push the team score to 19-6. PSU then forfeited the matches at 141 and 149, giving Evan Larkin (So., Tucson, Ariz.) and Eric Larkin (Sr., Tucson, Ariz.), respectively, wins to push the Sun Devil advantage to 31-6. Ryan Thomas halted the ASU momentum with a 9-2 decision at 157 over Mike Smith (Fr., Gilbert, Ariz.), bringing up the final match of the dual and No. 7 Frost at 165. Frost came out and racked up a 12-2 lead after the first period before scoring seven more in the second to end the match on a technical fall over Eric Arbogast at 3:57 in the match with a 19-4 final score. The Sun Devils return to action Friday and Saturday at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. The prestigious national tournament will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center with action slated to begin both days at 9 a.m. ASU returns to dual action Dec. 28 at Sunnyside High School in Tucson, Ariz., when it faces intrastate foes Embry-Riddle and Pima.