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NewsvineThe Stanford wrestlers hosted Cal State Fullerton on Monday in a matchup of Pacific-10 Conference rivals. Fresh off of their win over Cal State Bakersfield Friday, the Cardinal (5-3, 2-0) built themselves a two-game win streak as they defeated the Titans 26-11, gaining confidence and momentum in the process.
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“This was a good win,” head coach Kerry McCoy said. “We had some rough spots, but the guys fought hard. We were at a high level of intensity. We were better than we were on Friday night, and we’re getting better every time out.”
With their two victories, the Stanford wrestlers have now defeated two Pac-10 teams of superior conference rank in the last week. And while the latest rankings still show the Cardinal at eighth in the Pac-10, the team can expect continued success to improve its conference standing.
“Everyone’s getting some success, and everyone likes it a lot,” said 165-pound senior Ray Blake, a team captain. “I think they want to keep it up. I think we’re just building momentum. Guys are going to work harder because they want that success. We’re beating teams that we haven’t beaten in years, and hopefully that will continue.”
The Cardinal started rolling early in the match against Fullerton (2-10, 0-6). Heavyweight redshirt freshman Jared Boyer notched his first conference victory in an 8-5 decision over the Titans’ Matt Methling. Afterwards, 125-pound sophomore captain Tanner Gardner earned a technical fall against Johnny Rojas of Fullerton to put Stanford on top 8-0. The Cardinal eventually rolled out to a 14-4 lead before the real drama of the night began.
Sophomore Scott Loescher, weighing in at 157 pounds, jumped out to a big 8-1 lead over his opponent early. But Loescher found himself in overtime after Fullerton’s Shawn Reilly No. 5 in the Pac-10 fought his way back into the match. For Loescher, the story had a happy ending, as he scored quickly in overtime to take the 15-11 win. But 174-pound redshirt freshman Luke Feist, who also allowed his opponent back into a match after dominating early, lost 8-7 under similar circumstances.
“I think he started to think about it and tried to hang onto the lead a little bit and stopped wrestling,” McCoy said. “It’s kind of like in football when you put the prevent defense on. You go out there in prevent mode — and you’re not wrestling. You try and hang on and you stop. And you’re getting away from your power and the things you do well.”
Blake, who had the match between Loescher’s and Feist’s, wrestled with a more aggressive style than usual to earn an 11-4 victory.
“Scott had been cruising and then he fell a little bit behind at the end, and they were getting a little bit of momentum,” Blake said. “I felt like the team kind of needed a spark. So I felt like I, being a senior captain and everything, had to go out and wrestle with some intensity and inspire some of the other guys.”
Blake’s match turned out to be the last Stanford highlight of the evening. The Cardinal would go on to win only one of their final three matches as junior Ian Bork won by forfeit. Nevertheless, Stanford now takes a two-match winning streak into its road meet with UC-Davis this Friday.
“It’s always nice to think about what happened before, but you can’t dwell on it,” McCoy said. “The guys will enjoy it now, but it’s back to work tomorrow. UC-Davis is definitely one of the top teams in the conference, and we have to go out there and wrestle better than we did tonight to be able to compete with them. But I know that we can do it. If our guys continue to believe in themselves, we should have similar results.”