FROM OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
ATHLETICS COMMUNICATION OFFICE
TELEPHONE: (541) 737-3720 / (610) 417-9074
CONTACT: MATT FRANZBLAU
Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012
OSU Wrestlers Close Out 2012 at Midlands Championships
Beavers look to continue tournament success in suburban Chicago, while preparing for upcoming dual season
CORVALLIS, Ore. –
The Oregon State wrestling team will wrap up the 2012 calendar year with its final tune up before the heart of dual competition begins, at the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships this
weekend in Illinois.
The two-day tournament will last from Saturday, Dec. 29 through Sunday, Dec. 30 and will take place at historic Welsh-Ryan Arena on the campus of Northwestern University in
Evanston. The Beavers will make their first appearance in the tournament in four years and will look to continue their recent success in tournament style wrestling as they are coming off a first place finish at the Reno Tournament of Champions.
“Midlands is a two-day tournament and you wrestle through the quarters the first day and then you have the semis and finals the next day,” explained OSU head coach Jim Zalesky.
“It is one of the premier tournaments of the college individual season and gives you a good test of wrestling back-to-back days.”
Midlands will serve as the Beavers’ first competitive event in nearly two weeks as Zalesky’s wrestlers have not taken to the mats against an opponent since Dec. 16 in Reno.
This he thinks will be a good tune-up for the fast approaching rematch of the Border War, Saturday, Jan. 5 inside Gill Coliseum.
“It gets you back into the swing of things and competing,” Zalesky thought. “So I think it’s good to get back right after Christmas, go to that tournament, get some individual
matches and get back into training.”
*MEET NOTES
OREGON STATE
The Beavers enter the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships with a 2-2 overall record and an unblemished 1-0 mark in the Pac-12. Oregon State is coming off
a weekend in which it for the first time ever won the Reno Tournament of Champions title with a tournament best 145.0 total points. Jim Zalesky’s squad beat out Pac-12 foe Boise State for the crown and boasted a wrestler who claimed an individual weight class
title in RJ Pena. Pena went 4-0 and secured his third tournament title this season and second in a row. OSU is ranked in the top-20 in all three major Division I wrestling polls, the highest being in The Open Mat (No. 10), followed by D1 College Wrestling
(No. 15), and No. 20 according to Intermat. Jim Zalesky’s squad gained one spot in The Open Mat and D1 College Wrestling’s poll but fell six spots in the Intermat’s rankings.
The Beavers currently have a total of five wrestlers ranked nationally and those are Chad Hanke (HWT), Mike Mangrum (141), Taylor Meeks (197), RJ Pena
(157) and Scott Sakaguchi (149). That group can claim 15 different rankings in three separate polls. The highest ranked wrestler entering the seventh week of the 2012-13 season is senior 141 pounder Mike Mangrum, who is listed at No. 4 by D1 College Wrestling.
Mangrum is rated No. 7 in the nation by Intermat and eighth by The Open Mat. Also rated in the nation’s top 10 include senior heavyweight Chad Hanke (No. 6/7/9), sophomore Taylor Meeks (No. 9/10/11), RJ Pena (No. 9/9/9) and junior Scott Sakaguchi (No. 7/9/10).
KEN KRAFT MIDLANDS CHAMPIONSHIPS
The historic Ken Kraft Midlands Championships will be hosting its 50th ever tournament this weekend in Evanston, Ill., on the campus of Northwestern
University. The actual competition will take place inside Welsh-Ryan Arena and will feature more than 30 Division I teams, along with an assortment of national champions and finalists from Division II and III programs. The annual tournament regularly features
some of the top programs in the country. Of the 32 Division I teams at this year’s Midlands, 14 of them placed in the top-25 at the 2012 NCAA Championships, including Oregon State who finished 10th. This will be OSU’s first appearance at the Midlands since
the 2008-09 season, when it finished 13th out of 48 total teams participating in the event. The tournament’s namesake, Ken Kraft is a former Northwestern wrestler himself, who compiled a 38-7-2 record on the mats and the fifth best winning percentage in school
history. He then became the head coach of Wildcat wrestling, where he served for 22 seasons. Kraft was inducted into National Wrestling of Hall of Fame in 1997.
The meet starts at 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, Dec. 29th and lasts until Sunday, evening Dec. 30th. Action on Sunday can be seen live, starting
at 5 p.m. Pacific via the Big Ten Network. The event’s official website can be accessed by going here: nusports.com/sports/midlands
THE PENA STREAK
Junior RJ Pena is by far Oregon State’s hottest wrestler. The 157 pounder has won 11 consecutive matches en route to two straight individual weight class
titles at both the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invite and the Reno Tournament of Champions. Pena, who is 16-1 and ranked ninth in the nation by all three polls have three total individual weight class titles including his dominance at the Mike Clock Open last month.
The OSU captain’s only loss this season came at the hands of Boise State’s George Ivanov (Nov. 24), and has won two straight dual matches including his victories against Minnesota’s Danny Zilverberg (Dec. 8) and North Dakota State’s Hayden Zillmer (Dec. 9).
15 WIN CLUB
A heralded trio of OSU wrestlers has reached the 15-win plateau so far this season with another three knocking on the door, just waiting to get into one of the season’s most
exclusive clubs. The three that have already reached the seasonal milestone are 157 pounder RJ Pena who is 16-1 overall and boasts an 11 match winning streak, followed by 141 pounder Mike Mamgrum (16-3) and heavyweight Chad Hanke, who is a combined 15-3. Those
who are on the outside looking in, but not for long include Scott Sakaguchi (149 lbs.) at 14-3, Taylor Meeks (197 lbs.) who is also 14-3 and 174 pounder Austin Morehead (14-5).
Matt Franzblau
Communications Assistant
Oregon State University Athletics
209 Gill Coliseum
Corvallis, Oregon 97331
matt.franzblau@oregonstate.edu
O: (541) 737.3720
C: (610) 417-9074
F: (541) 737-3072
