OSU, ranked 16th nationally, finished the first day of the two-day meet with 92 points; California-Davis is in second place with 74.5 points and Cal Poly is third with 71.5 points. The tournament concludes with two more sessions on Sunday; the Beavers are trying for their first Pac-10 title since 1994.
"It was a good day," OSU head coach Jim Zalesky said. "We won a lot of matches in the last 20 seconds ... those (semifinal) matches at 125 pounds, 133 pounds, 149 pounds – we won those in the last seconds of each match, and that's where training hard and all the hard work pay off, at the end of those close matches."
Sunday's first session at 11 a.m. will include the wrestleback semifinals and the fifth-place finals; the second session at 5:30 p.m. will include the third-place finals and the championship finals. Sunday's action at the Pac-10 tournament can be followed on the internet by going to www.gorunners.com, then clicking on the tab labeled "Pacific-10 Wrestling Tournament Central." Live video streaming of the tourney will be available at www.pac-10.org.
By reaching the championship finals, the five Beavers have assured themselves a place at the NCAA Championships. The top three wrestlers at each weight class, plus nine wild cards selected from across the 10 weight classes by the conference coaches, will advance to the national meet March 15-17 in Detroit, Mich.
Still alive in the wrestleback bracket with the potential to place as high as third for OSU are 157-pounder Keegan Davis, 184-pounder Kyle Bressler and 197-pounder Travis Gardner.
"Now we've got to have a good day on Sunday and wrap up the title," Zalesky said. "Nothing is wrapped up yet. In tournaments like this, you've got to wrestle better each day."
Wins by Kipperberg, Davis and Gardner over UCD wrestlers who had beaten them in a dual meet earlier this month proved pivotal in OSU building its lead in the team race.
"Those were huge for us," Zalesky said.
OSU 141-pounder Kyle Larson, ranked 18th nationally and seeded third in the meet, lost both his matches on Saturday. Larson is still trying to recover from a knee injury suffered near the end of the dual meet season.
"Kyle was beat up," Zalesky said. "He tried, but he just didn't have it; he just couldn't do anything. It was a tough way for his season to end."
Watterson, ranked fifth nationally and seeded first in the Pac-10 meet, won three matches Saturday – including a pin and a major decision – to reach the finals for the second straight season. Watterson will seek his first Pac-10 title against third-seeded Cody Parker of Cal Poly; Parker is ranked 12th nationally.
Larson, ranked 17th nationally and seeded second in the meet, is also in the finals for the second straight season after earning a pair of wins, including a technical fall. He'll go against top-seeded Ken Cook of UC-Davis, who is ranked fourth nationally.
Stevenson, seeded second, also had a pin among his three victories. He'll wrestle in the finals against Tanner Gardner of Stanford, who is seeded first and is ranked third nationally.
Pfennigs, another Beaver seeded second, advanced to the finals with a pair of decisions. His opponent in the finals will be top-seeded Darrell Vasquez of Cal Poly, who is ranked sixth nationally.
Kipperberg, seeded third, upset second-seeded Brandon Doyle of Cal State-Bakersfield 6-5 in the semifinals to reach the final. Kipperberg will wrestle for the championship against Morgan Atkinson of Cal State-Fullerton, who is seeded first and is ranked 11th nationally.
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