FROM OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

ATHLETICS COMMUNICATION OFFICE

TELEPHONE: (541) 737-3720 / (785) 218-8349                                

CONTACT: MATT FRANZBLAU                                                          

WWW.OSUBEAVERS.COM                                                          

 

Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012

 

 

OSU Wrestlers to Hit the Mats for Annual Intrasquad Meet

 

Event will serve as one of two early season starting points for team, heading into first home meet

 

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State wrestling team will officially launch its 2012-13 campaign Wednesday night as members will take to the mats to participate in the annual Intrasquad meet.

 

The event will begin at 7 p.m. inside Gill Coliseum and will feature match-ups between OSU wrestlers in each weight class. The Beavers enter the new year ranked pre-season No. 9 by D1 College Wrestling as well as No. 10 by InterMat. They also can claim seven different wrestlers who between them have a total of 19 preseason rankings.

 

Those ranked wrestlers include returning All-Americans Mike Mangrum (141 lbs) and Scott Sakaguchi (149 lbs), as well as Chad Hanke (HWT), RJ Pena (157 lbs), Taylor Meeks (197 lbs), Pat Rollins (125 lbs) and Ty Vinson (164 lbs).

 

“This is just kind of an evaluation period for the coaches,” said seventh-year OSU head coach Jim Zalesky. “To me it is kind of an evaluation for the wrestlers too, so they can see where they stack up.”

Coach Zalesky will hold preliminaries for the Intrasquad in practice on Tuesday and the winners of those matches will be on the mats for finals in Gill, Wednesday night. Each weight class with the exception of heavyweight will feature preliminary matchups.

 

Wednesday’s Intrasquad along with the Mike Clock Open this Sunday in Forest Grove, Ore., will help Zalesky and his staff decide who starts versus Michigan on Nov. 16.

 

“You can see the excitement,” Zalesky explained. “People are putting their blinders on and getting focused for competition. There is a little bit more focus in practice and you can tell the guys are getting ready to compete because they know this is a chance to make the team.”

 

The 2012 Intrasquad meet begins at 7 p.m. inside Gill Coliseum and admission is free to the general public. Those who can’t make it Wednesday night can follow the results live via trackwrestling.com by going to this link: http://www.trackwrestling.com/tw/dualmeets/DualMeetDetail.jsp?dualMeetId=796071

 

Matt Franzblau
Communications Assistant
Oregon State University Athletics
209 Gill Coliseum
Corvallis, Oregon 97331
matt.franzblau@oregonstate.edu
O: (541) 737.3720
C: (785) 218-8349
F: (541) 737-3072