The Mustang wrestling team beat Stanford 28-11 at Mott Gym Friday night in a PAC-10 conference dual meet. The dual meet win brought the wrestling team’s record to a 6-2 for the season. They are now ranked No. 15 in the nation.
Cal Poly came into the third match with the lead when junior Filip Novachkov pinned his opponent with one minute left, putting Cal Poly ahead, with a score of 9-3.
“I expected to get a pin, but I almost got pinned myself,” Filip Novachkov said. “I didn’t take it lightly.”
Chase Pami, won his match in the 157-weight class, scoring 6 takedowns and a point for riding time. The Mustangs had four other wins in the meet.
Chase Pami, who is ranked No. 10 in the country, won his match in the 157-weight class 14-5 against Stanford’s Lucas Espericueta, who is ranked No. 20 in the country. Pami scored 6 takedowns and a point for riding time. Pami, who didn’t compete in last weeks match against San Francisco, has been out for a week after bruising his rib.
Boris Novachkov won his match against Stanford’s Justin Paulsen in the 133 pound division with a score of 10-3, making his season record 19-1, and his record for dual meets this season 6-0. Boris Novachkov is ranked No. 4 in the country for his weight as well as No. 2 in last week’s individual rankings for Pac-10. Boris Novachkov was a point a way from getting a major decision when he released his opponent.
“I did pretty good, but I could have done better,” Boris Novachkov said. “I need to wrestle harder. I need to wrestle for the whole team.”
Cal Poly was leading 9-3 when freshmen Nick Fisher won his match against Mike Kent with four takedowns winning with a score of 12-6.
Ryan DesRoches was quick to put Cal Poly far in the lead with his 9-4 win bringing the score to 19-6. DesRoches has the second most pins in the country with 14, and has a record of 24-6. He has also been ranked No. 1 in the individual rankings for Pac-10 in his weight, 174 pounds.
Sophomore Ryan Smith closed the match with almost a major win of 15-11. Jim Powers took the forfeit for heavyweights, which brought the dual meet to an end with Cal Poly winning.
Stanford took home three wins including a tech fall from No. 11 in the nation Stanford’s Zack Giesen against Mustangs Kelan Bragg in 184 weight. Micah Ferguson lost 6-8 despite Ferguson’s four escape and takedown. Travis Rasmussen also lost 6-1.
“We wrestled hard, with a lot of good energy,” Coach John Azevedo said. “We got them (Stanford) tired, scored a lot of points.”
This is the first season since 1980 that Cal Poly has had three wrestlers ranked in the top 10 in the Country.