The Beavers are currently sitting in second place with 102 points, trailing Cal Poly, who has 108.5. Boise State is in third with 97.5. Oregon State has four wrestlers still in contention for the conference title with all six others still alive in the wrestleback brackets.
Top seeded Covington breezed through his first two matches at 174 pounds, defeating No. 8 Alex Darkhovsky of UC Davis by way of a 26-10 technical fall as time expired in the match. Covington then earned his second bonus point win over No. 5 Jake Johnson of Stanford in a 16-5 major decision to advance to the championship match. He will face No. 2 Nate Lee of Boise State tomorrow.
Seeded second, Lara picked up a pair of decisions to advance to the championship match at 125 pounds, defeating No. 7 Micah Ferguson of Cal Poly, 6-2, and No. 6 Frank Lomas of Cal State Bakersfield, 3-2. Lara will face No. 1 Anthony Robles of Arizona State in the championship match.
Jack earned his first automatic bid, second NCAA Tournament qualification. Seeded third, Jack defeated Samuel Zylstra of Boise State for the second time this season, winning 3-0, to advance to the quarterfinals before pinning No. 2 Eric Nye of Arizona State. Jack will take on No. 1 Mitch Monteiro of Cal State Bakersfield in the final match at heavyweight.
Also in the hunt to earn an automatic bid are sophomore Kelly Kubec (Lake Stevens, Wash.) at 133 pounds, redshirt freshman Mike Mangrum at 141 pounds, freshman RJ Pena (Salem, Ore.) at 149 pounds, senior Keegan Davis (Salem, Ore.) at 157 pounds and senior Dan Brascetta (Aurora, Colo.) at 165 pounds.
Brascetta, seeded second, is in contention for the lone spot at 165 pounds, defeating No. 7 Joseph Wilson of UC Davis, 5-2 before a 6-2 victory over No. 6 Michael Cuthbertson of Boise State in the semifinals. Brascetta will face No. 1 Nick Amuchastegui of Stanford in the championship match.
Kubec is still looking to get one of the five spots up for grab, needing only to defeat No. 5 Justin Paulsen of Stanford in his first match tomorrow to advance to the third place match. No. 2 Kubec opened the day with a 10-6 win over No. 7 Justin Durham of Cal State Bakersfield but fell to No. 3 Boris Novachkov, 6-0, in the semifinals.
Mangrum needs to win his next two matches in order to secure the third and final spot at 141 pounds. As the third seed, he fell in his first match against No. 6 Chris Drouin of Arizona State, 4-3, before rebounding with an 11-2 major decision over No. 7 Bryan Osuna of UC Davis. Mangrum will take on No.1 Levi Jones in the third session on Saturday.
Pena was also unable to stay in the championship bracket at 149 pounds, seeded sixth, falling to No. 3 Vicente Varela of Arizona State, 9-7, but was able to come back with a 6-3 win over No. 7 Tyler Parker in his second match of the day. Pena is battling for the third and final spot in his weight class to earn an automatic bid and will face No. 1 Jason Chamberlain in the first session.
Davis advanced to the semifinals, defeating No. 6 Andrew Balch of Cal State Bakersfield, 7-3, but fell to No. 2 Chase Pami, 15-3. Davis will look to earn the third spot at 157 pounds, beginning with No. 4 Lucas Espericueta for the right to advance to the third place match.
Redshirt freshman Ty Vinson (Great Falls, Mont.) and sophomore Chad Hanke (Dayton, Ore.) still have a slim shot of earning the automatic bid in their respective weight classes, 184 and 197, if a need to wrestle for true second is needed and both win third place.
Oregon State continues competition at the Pac-10 Championships on Saturday beginning at 12:00 p.m.
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