The Barometer Online

Issue date: 1/16/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Ethan Erickson Oregon State 174-pound senior Kyle Bressler wins an 8-7 decision Wednesday over Portland State's Brady Garner. The Beavers return to the mat Sunday against Iowa State.

The Oregon State wrestling team was able to clean house in their conference home opener against the Portland State Vikings Wednesday night in Legendary Gill Coliseum.

Taking the meet with a dominating 40-3 overall victory, the Beavers looked to be in top shape. With some exciting match-ups and only one Beavers loss, the crowd of 418 spectators was making plenty of noise in support of OSU.

Starting the meet strong, senior Jake Gonzales, 125-pounds, was able to get a technical fall over Portland State's Kevin Martinez in a 19-4 win.

"We always try to preach to go out there and put up as many points as you can," head coach Jim Zalesky said. "We were able to do that in a few matches."

Putting up points is what the Beavers did. In the first half of the meet, back-to-back Beaver wrestlers were able to win by fall, putting up some serious points.

The first Beaver to win by fall was red shirt freshman Garret Drucker, 141-pounds. In his first varsity bout, Drucker pinned Portland State's Westley Moniz in an impressive 0:23. Not to be outdone, senior Heinrich Barnes, 149-pounds, recorded his own pin against Portland State's Steven Dailey, his second win by fall this season.

From this point, Oregon State began to slow down their tempo, dropping one match followed by two decisions by three or less points each. Most surprising was senior Kyle Bressler, 174-pounds, in his win over Portland State's Brady Garner ending in decision, 8-7. This could be attributed to his change in weight class, going from 197 to 184 to the 174-pound class.

"We got a little sluggish," Zalesky said about the duel. "Which I kind of expected, we trained a lot going into this match."

Oregon State finished strong with three major decisions to put away the Vikings. The duel win gives the Beavers a 1-1 record in conference play and keeps the Vikings shut out in the Pac-10.

Coming off a strong victory is just what the Beavers needed to do to build momentum going into Sundays big meet against No. 2 Iowa State. The Cyclones have been very successful against Oregon State only having lost once in thirteen meetings, including their shutout last year of 40-0. The Beavers are looking to tip the scale with back-to-back home victories.

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