1999 Pacific-10 Championships

STANFORD WRESTLING

1999 Pacific-10 Wrestling Championships
Saturday, February 27 - Sunday, February 28
Burnham Pavilion, Stanford University

Schedule of Events | Ticket Information | Directions | Tournament Outlook

Schedule of Events

 
Friday, February 26
 8:00 a.m.   Burnham Pavilion and San Diego Sports Hall (SDSH) set-up begins
10:00 a.m.   Burnham and SDSH ready for Pac-10 teams' warm-up/practice
 2:00 p.m.   30-minute press conference (Arrilaga Family Sports Center - ABC room)
 2:30 p.m.   Pre-championship coaches' meeting (AFSC - ABC room)
             Establish wildcard selection criteria
             Seeding meeting: bring 10 copies each of your updated individual record sheets
             Pac-10 agenda items (will continue on Sunday at 8:30 a.m.as necessary)
  4:00 p.m.  Referees' meeting: review this year's NCAA rules tape (AFSC- Sun room)
  5:00 p.m.  Coaches' meeting ends
  7:00 p.m.  Coaches' social and dinner (Catered dinner in the ABC room)

Saturday, February 27
 7:00 a.m.   Burnham Pavilion and wrestling room open for team warm-ups
 9:00 a.m.   One-hour medical check for all wrestlers (SDSH)
10:00 a.m.   Weigh-In: three scales (SDSH)
             Chris Horpel and Mike Burch will conduct the weigh-in with other Pac-10 coaches
11:30 a.m.   Event staff meeting with head official (Burnham Pavilion)
12:00 p.m.   Session I: pigtails, quarterfinals (Burnham Pavilion) (three mats, 3 hours 20 min) 
             Note: gym opens for team warm-ups at 7:00 a.m. and for spectators at 11:00 a.m.
 6:30 p.m.   Parade of Champions (all Pac-10 athletes and coaches)
 7:00 p.m.   Session II: cons pigtails, semifinals, cons round one (three mats, 3 hours 20 min)
             Note: gym opens for team warm-ups at 5:00 p.m. and for spectators at 6:00 p.m.

Sunday, February 28
 8:30 a.m.   Two-hour coaches' meeting (as needed in AFSC - ABC room)
 9:00 a.m.   Burnham Pavilion open for team warm-ups
11:00 a.m.   Weigh-In (SDSH)
12:00 p.m.   Session III: cons round 2,  cons semis, places 5th-6th (two mats, 2 hours 30 min)
             Note: gym opens for team warm-ups at 9:00 a.m. and for spectators at 11:00 a.m.
 6:00 p.m.   Session IV: places 1st-2nd and 3rd-4th (two mats, 2 hours)
             Note: gym opens for team warm-ups at 4:00 p.m. and for spectators at 5:00 p.m.
 8:30 p.m.   Coaches' wild card and officials' ranking meeting (AFSC - ABC room)

Note: The Stanford wrestling room has two 42' x 42' mats and will be heated to 75 degrees. It will be available for practice and warm-ups Thursday-Saturday from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. It will be open on Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Burnham Pavilion, where the competition and weigh-ins will take place, will be about 70 degrees and will be available as noted above. Three mats will be used for sessions I and II. Two mats will be used for sessions III and IV.

Ticket Information

Thus far, about half of the tickets have been sold out through pre-tournament sales. It is likely that the second day will sell out. Tickets will be sold at Burnham Pavilion for each session (as available). Tickets may also be purchased through the Stanford ticket office, gate 2 of Stanford Stadium, or by calling 1-800-BEAT-CAL.

Directions

The Tournament will be held in Burnham Pavilion, in the Ford Center, on Stanford Campus. The Pavilion is located at the corner of Serra and Galvez. See map.

Tournament Outlook
By Stanford Head Coach Chris Horpel

This year's Pacific-10 Conference Wrestling Championship looks to be a three-way team race between #11 ranked Cal State Bakersfield, #12 ranked Arizona State and #16 ranked Oregon State. In addition, #25 ranked Boise State has put together a great tournament team and could challenge for the title.

In dual meets, Cal State Bakersfield (14-5-1) beat seven Pac-10 schools and is the only team in the conference without a Pac-10 loss. However, Bakersfield tied Arizona State 18-18. Arizona State (11-8-1) lost to Oregon State (13-8-0) 23-19 and Bakersfield beat Oregon State 22-16. Any of these three could win the conference title.

Portland State is the newest addition to the Pac-10, which brings the number of schools in the conference to 10. All 10 programs have at least one athlete who can reach the finals in at least one weight division, which will have a large impact on who ultimately will win the team title.

The Pac-10 conference started the season with two athletes ranked number one nationally in their weight divisions. Heading the list is still-undefeated 285-pound Steve Neal of Cal State Bakersfield. Neal has pinned every Pac-10 opponent he has faced this season and is the defending NCAA champion at heavyweight. Oscar Wood of Oregon State is the other Pac-10 wrestler who started the season #1 at 149 pounds. He is currently ranked #3 nationally. In all, the Pac-10 has five returning All-Americans: 141- Joey Coughran of Cal State Fullerton, 149 - Oscar Wood of Oregon State, 174 - David Wells of Cal Poly-SLO, 197 - Chael Sonnen of Oregon and 285 - Steve Neal of Cal State Bakersfield.

Weight-by-weight

125 - Arizona State's Matt Azevedo (25-11) is ranked 7th nationally and is probably the one to beat here. Cal State Bakersfield's 8th-ranked Moses Delfin has beaten Azevedo once and Oregon State's 15th-ranked Nathan Navarro has beaten Delfin once. Stanford's Rudy Ruiz was fourth here last year here and will have to upset one of these three to make the finals. There are three or four more who could challenge in this weight division. Whoever has a great Pac-10 will win the weight.

133 - Arizona State's freshman sensation Eric Larkin (20-3) is ranked 4th nationally and won the Las Vegas Invitational in December. Oregon State's Ben Richards (20-9) placed third at 125 last year. Stanford's #16-ranked Zach Zimmerer, a two-time NCAA qualifier who placed second in last year's Pac-10, has not wrestled Larkin but lost to Richards 6-5 in November. UC Davis' David Yi (20-8) is also a threat and has been on a roll lately month. This is the smallest weight division with only eight of the 10 schools having entries this year.

141 - Returning All-American Joey Coughran (20-3) of Cal State Fullerton is ranked 10th nationally and is probably the favorite here. Arizona State's Mark Perryman (14-5) is ranked 20th and is undefeated in the Pac-10, but has not wrestled Coughran. Cal Poly's James Gross (18-9) has come on strong lately beating Cal State Bakersfield's Jon Archuleta (22-12). However, Archuleta beat Coughran 3-1 in the finals of the All Cal earlier this month but lost to Perryman 14-4 in their dual meet. Boise State's Cory Caywood (19-8) is also a threat here with finalist possibilities.

149 - Returning All-American Oscar Wood (25-4) of Oregon State is ranked 3rd nationally and has beaten most everyone in the Pac-10 this year. Arizona State's Quinn Foster (20-9) is ranked 16th and will challenge. Cal State Bakersfield's Mike Mendoza (8-8) was a close second last year down a weight division and also has finalist capabilities. Mendoza was injured early in the season and is recently returned to full strength. UC Davis' Scott Nykodym (25-5) and Cal Poly's Cedric Haymon (19-9) are also within reach for a Pac-10 title.

157 - Boise State's Larry Quisel (23-2) is ranked 4th nationally and is the one to beat here. Quisel lost an early season match to #17-ranked Oregon's Daryl Christian (17-10) but came back and beat Christian later. Oregon State's #20 ranked Eric Jorgenson (20-13) and Cal State Bakersfield's Nathan Vasquez (20-13) are also capable of making it to the finals. Vasquez has a key win over Christian. Stanford's Beau Weiner (20-6) is also a finals threat after finishing with one third and two fifths in his three other Pac-10s.

165 - Boise State's Kirk White (29-1) is ranked 2nd nationally. Although he doesn't usually win big, he wins. His only loss this season was in overtime to Iowa State's Joe Heskett in the NWCA All-Star dual. Returning Pac-10 champion Sean Morgan (19-7) of Oregon is looking to repeat and is ranked 9th nationally. 10th ranked Steve Blackford (21-10) of Arizona State is also a title threat. Cal State Bakersfield's Andy Varner (27-7) is ranked 12th nationally and rounds out possibly the deepest weight in this year's Pac-10 championship.

174 - Returning All-American David Wells (18-2) of Cal Poly is ranked 5th nationally and is favored to win here. After Wells it is unclear who is next as the rest of the field has taken turns beating each other. Cal State Fullerton's #20-ranked Jason Webster (8-4) got a late start this season after finishing third in last year's Pac-10. Kyle Klonizos (14-8) of Boise State was beaten by Webster, but has beaten most of the other Pac-10 entries. Oregon's Shawn O'Rourke (11-7), Portland State's Jeremy Wilson (17-11) and Oregon State's Clint Wilson (14-13) are also possible finalists.

184 - Arizona State's Casey Strand is the man to beat here. Strand is a returning All-American and is ranked 5th nationally. 13th-ranked Lionel Halsey of Cal State Bakersfield will challenge along with #20-ranked Doug Lee of Oregon. Halsey pinned Lee this year and Cal Poly's Joey Hart (12-9) beat Halsey. UC Davis' David Cobb (13-4) has beaten Hart but lost to Halsey. All five have finalist potential.

197 - Returning All-American Chael Sonnen (22-6) of Oregon is ranked 9th nationally and is favored to win this weight division. However, he will be challenged by two Pac-10 wrestlers who have been beaten him this year: 14th-ranked Rafael Davis (26-11) of Cal State Bakersfield and Shane Zajac (19-12) of Oregon State. Cal Poly's Mike French (13-6) is ranked 17th and is the defending Pac-10 champion. Cal State Fullerton's Babak Nejadmoghaddan (11-6) is ranked 19th nationally. Any one of these five has a shot at winning it this year.

285 - Defending NCAA Champion Steve Neal (36-0) is heavily favored here. Neal has pinned every Pac-10 opponent he has faced this season and has hardly been scored on by anyone all season. Neal is quite possibly the most dominant heavyweight wrestler in American history. He will be challenged by Oregon State's Matt Orndorff (26-4), Cal Poly's Gan McGee (23-7) and Boise State's Rusty Cook (17-5). It will most likely be a battle between the other big men for the right to face Neal.

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