Cal Poly junior Chase Pami earned his second-straight Pac-10 championship defeating Boise State’s Adam Hall in the final match at 157-pounds.
With the win, Pami erased the specter of a loss to Hall earlier this season and qualified for the NCAA championships in St. Louis, Mo. later this month.
Both Pami and Hall had been ranked in the top 10 for most of the year, and it was no different when the two stalwarts got together in the finale. Pami entered the match ranked 10th in the nation while Hall was sixth.
Just as in their previous match, the two battled into overtime where Pami said he questioned whether he would get the win.
“There was a point in the match where I was definitely unsure if I was going to pull it out,” Pami said in a statement. “I heard Coach (Sammie) Henson yelling from the bench late in the match and hearing his voice just reminded me of all the hard practices we’ve had and just pushed me through the last part of the match.
The match continued into double-overtime where Pami earned a hard-fought 4-3 decision.
“I just thank God for giving me the strength to finish it out on top,” Pami said.
Joining Pami in St. Louis will be sophomore Filip Novachkov who placed third at 133-pounds.
It was unclear early on whether Novachkov would earn a spot on the podium, but he gathered steam, winning two straight in the consolation bracket to claim the third spot.
Novachkov defeated Thomas Kimbrell of Cal State Bakersfield 7-0 before earning a 9-5 decision over Brandon Low of UC Davis.
Freshman Ryan DesRoches narrowly missed a podium spot at 174-pounds finishing in fourth position. Starting the championship as the No. 8 seed, DesRoches won an 18-6 major decision over sixth-seed Jason Points of Cal State Bakersfield to reach the third-place match.
In a rematch with No. 3 seed Kyle Bressler of Oregon State, the two battled to overtime where Bressler earned a 6-4 win. Bressler had pinned DesRoches earlier this season in just over two minutes.
As a team the Mustangs finished sixth behind champion Boise State. The Broncos won the overall title handily, defeating second place Oregon State by 44.5 points.