Oregon State
Fresno State
Cooley's Victory Pushes Beavers Past Fresno State
January 22, 2000 | Wrestling
Jan. 22, 2000
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State heavyweight Jason Cooley earned a technical fall in the final match Saturday afternoon to hand 21st-ranked Oregon State a 20-18 win over Fresno State in non-league wrestling at Gill Coliseum. The Beavers (5-4 overall, 2-1 Pacific-10) won their third straight dual meet as the eighth-ranked Cooley took a 17-2 lead on Fresno State's Grant Harrington with 20 seconds remaining in the match.
OSU will be at home again Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. for a non-league dual meet against Simon Fraser, which is ranked 12th nationally in the NAIA.
Against Fresno State (7-5), the Beavers also saw fourth-ranked 157-pounder Eric Jorgensen win his 19th straight match and 165-pounder Donny Kersey score his first pin of the season. OSU was in its first meet without 184-pounder Isaac Weber, who is lost for the season after suffering a torn meniscus in his left knee during practice late last week.
That left Oregon State using Jake Huffman - a freshman 165-pounder - at 184 pounds, where he was pinned by Fresno State's Jason Rossotti in 4:55. That was one of three straight wins by the Bulldogs that left them up 18-15 with just the heavyweight match remaining, and OSU needing bonus points from Cooley to secure the win.
"After Clint (Wilson, OSU's 197-pounder), lost, I was thinking, 'I can't wrestle any differently - I've just got to do what I'd do in the first place'," Cooley said. "When you put more pressure on yourself, you make mistakes."
Cooley led 3-1 by the end of the first period on the strength of a takedown and two stalling calls against Harrington.
"I really wanted more takedowns, but that guy is tough on his feet and he keeps his head to the opposite side that most guys do," Cooley said of Harrington. But the Beavers had been working on cradles this week, and Cooley put that practice to use early in the second period.
Harrington chose the down position, and Cooley turned him for a three-point near fall midway through the period. After a Harrington escape, Cooley took him down again with 25 seconds left in the period to make it 8-2.
Cooley escaped quickly in the third period to make it 9-2 and had accumulated enough riding time for an extra point and the eight-point margin that would provide a major decision and give OSU the team win. By then, though, the OSU sophomore was thinking technical fall.
"I really wanted the tech," Cooley said. "I hadn't gotten one all year."
Cooley went up 11-2 on a takedown with 1:46 remaining and increased that to 14-2 on another three-point near fall out of a cradle with 1:07 left. Finally, with 20 seconds on the clock, he cradled Harrington for another three-point near fall to end the match and improve to 14-5 this season.
Jorgensen's 19th straight win came in a 9-3 decision over Tim Cornish, who has given the Beaver junior a number of battles over the years and was 16-5 this season entering Saturday's match. One of those previous meetings was a 5-4 Jorgensen victory at this season's Las Vegas Classic.
"I was pretty excited to wrestle him today," Jorgensen said. "I knew some of the things he does and made sure I didn't get in a position for him to do them. I was more excited to wrestle him than I've been in the past - nervous, but excited."
Jorgensen is now 19-1, with his only loss of the season coming in his opening match at the St. Louis Open. He's not letting himself get caught up in the streak.
"Each match is different," Jorgensen said. "I don't care about the 19 in a row, or whatever it is - I just want to go out and wrestle and compete each time. I'm not worrying about the number of wins or who I've wrestled - just each individual match."
Two Beavers continued showing signs of bolstering a pair of weights where Oregon State has struggled: 165-pounder Kersey and 141-pounder Shane Cunanan. Between them, Kersey and Cunanan had lost 13 straight matches before picking up key victories in a 24-13 win at Oregon on Jan. 14, they both picked up their second straight wins on Saturday.
"Those guys are young and inexperienced," OSU head coach Joe Wells said. "But they work hard. They've made adjustments, corrected mental errors, and they ask questions. They're developing and working at it."
Kersey earned his first pin of the season, thumping Eddie Gifford in 1:55, Gifford had an 8-5 record entering the match. Kersey took Gifford down and straight to his back with 2:21 left in the first period, then fought his shoulders to the mat.
Cunanan was a 9-4 winner over the Bulldogs' Ralph Lopez, who was 14-7 with three pins entering the match. Cunanan led just 6-4 midway through the final period but scored a takedown with 23 seconds remaining and added a point for riding time to seal the win.
The Beavers also got a victory from Nathan Navarro at 125 pounds, as he beat Jason Bedsole 6-0. OSU's Ben Richards, ranked 18th nationally at 133 pounds, had a chance to beat seventh-ranked Paris Ruiz but fell 8-7 after leading 6-1 in the first period.
"We had some opportunities to really set them on their heels," Wells said. "We just needed to manage some matches better and control what was going on."
NO. 21 OREGON STATE 20, FRESNO STATE 18
(Current Amateur Wrestling News national rankings in parentheses)
125 - Nathan Navarro, OSU, dec. Jason Bedsole, FSU, 6-0. 133 - (7) Paris Ruiz, FSU, dec. Ben Richards, OSU, 8-7. 141 - Shane Cunanan, OSU, dec. Ralph Lopez, FSU, 9-4. 149 - Darrick Duran, FSU, dec. Andy Frey, OSU, 6-5. 157 - (4) Eric Jorgensen, OSU, dec. Tim Cornish, FSU, 9-3. 165 - Don Kersey, OSU, pinned Eddie Gifford, FSU, 1:55. 174 - Dan Jackson, FSU, dec. Nathan Coy, OSU, 5-4. 184 - Jason Rossotti, FSU, pinned Jake Huffman, OSU, 4:55. 197 - Tom Gohde, FSU, dec. Clint Wilson, OSU, 2-1. HWT - (8) Jason Cooley, OSU, tech. fall Grant Harrington, FSU, 6:40 (17-2).
