Oregon State Wrestling

To Oregon, then visit from No. 11 Nebraska

The full release as a pdf document.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13
Oregon State at Oregon; Eugene, Ore.; 7 p.m.
(Civil War, presented by Northwest Dodge Dealers)
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14
No. 11 Nebraska at Oregon State; Gill Coliseum; 1 p.m.

Oregon State's wrestlers may get final exams over with by Friday afternoon, but they'll continue to be tested well into the weekend.

The Beavers (0-0 overall duals, 0-0 Pacific-10 duals) get into dual meet competition when OSU travels to Oregon (0-0, 0-0) for a Civil War matchup on Friday night and then hosts 11th-ranked Nebraska (1-0, 0-0) on Saturday afternoon.

"These will be two very good meets," OSU head coach Joe Wells said. "First, on a Friday the 13th, we get to go down and wrestle the Ducks for bragging rights for two months, and we're looking forward to it. We're fired up. Go to Mac Court, shake hands and get after it."

OSU and Oregon have usually had a look at one another in both the Southern Oregon Open and Las Vegas Invitational by the time they meet in their December dual, but Oregon's schedule this winter didn't include either tournament.

"We're pretty familiar with each other, anyway," Wells said. "Everybody knows everybody, basically; they've all gone to high school together."

The Civil War dual provides a great matchup at heavyweight, where Oregon State senior Andy Bowlby is ranked 10th nationally by Amateur Wrestling News and 11th by InterMat. Bowlby pinned three nationally-ranked opponents last week en route to fifth place at the prestigious Las Vegas Invitational.

Oregon counters with Eric Webb, who is ranked 12th by AWN and eighth by IM. Webb is ranked second in the Pac-10, while Bowlby is ranked fourth.

The Ducks have two other nationally-ranked wrestlers. At 149 pounds, Tony Overstake is ranked 19th by IM; at 174 pounds, Shane Webster is ranked ninth by AWN and seventh by IM.

Nebraska, which will wrestle at Portland State on Friday night, comes to Gill Coliseum with five nationally-ranked wrestlers. At 125 pounds, Jason Powell is ranked fourth by AWN and third by IM; at 149, Travis Shufelt is ranked ninth by AWN and 14th by IM; at 165, Jacob Klein is ranked 18th by IM; at 174, Travis Pascoe is ranked 13th by AWN and 14th by IM; at 184, B.J. Paden is ranked sixth by AWN and eighth by IM; at 197, Justin Ruiz is ranked first by AWN and third by IM.

"That's a good, solid group," Wells said of the Cornhuskers, who placed sixth in the 50-team Las Vegas Invitational last weekend. "They had a number of kids place, and it's going to make for a good meet."

Oregon State will have challenge matches during the week to determine a number of starters.

"These are both good tests for us as we finish the first half of the season," Wells said. "They'll give us a lot to look at. We haven't had a lot of matches so far, but we've got a lot of competition coming up right after the Christmas break. This weekend will give all our guys an opportunity to wrestle some people who are ranked in their weight class."

A historical footnote - this is the latest dual opener for OSU since the 1990-91 season, when the Beavers wrestled Western Oregon on Dec. 13.

Oregon State's probable lineup

• 125 - Brett Phillips, fr. (Turner, Ore./Cascade HS); 1-3 with 0 pins or - Bobby Pfennigs, fr. (Billings, Mont./C.M. Russell HS); 2-0 with 0 pins
• 133 - Tim Norman, so. (Newberg, Ore./Newberg HS); 3-2 with 0 pins
• 141 - Mike Unger, fr. (Turner, Ore./Cascade HS); 0-1 with 0 pins
• 149 - Tony Hook, fr. (Sandpoint, Idaho/Sandpoint HS); 5-2 with 0 pins or - Orlando Perez, fr. (Hermiston, Ore./Hermiston HS); 0-1 with 0 pins
• 157 - Jeremy Larson, fr. (Hermiston, Ore./Hermiston HS); 3-2 with 0 pins
• 165 - Matt Ellis, so. (Prosser, Wash./Prosser HS, Oklahoma St. U.); 1-2 with 0 pins or - Anthony Weber, fr. (Newberg, Ore./Newberg HS); 1-1 with 0 pins
• 174 - Jake Huffman, sr. (Scio, Ore./Scio HS); 6-2 with 1 pin; in Pac-10, ranked 5th
• 184 - Dan Pitsch, fr. (Tacoma, Wash./Spanaway Lake HS); 6-3 with 0 pins; in Pac-10, ranked 5th or - Curt Willener, jr. (Porltand, Ore./Scappoose HS); 1-1 with 0 pins
• 197 - Jason Lovell, jr. (Turner, Ore./Cascade HS); 3-2 with 0 pins; in Pac-10, ranked 2nd or - Brandon Hern, fr. (Clinton, Wash./South Whidbey HS); 4-0 with 1 pin
• HWT - Andy Bowlby, sr. (Newberg, Ore./Newberg HS); 7-3 with 3 pins; In nation, ranked 11th AWN, 11th IM; in Pac-10, ranked 4th