TEMPE, Ariz. – Winning scrambles and finishing on top led both
Matty Bianchi and
Tyler Brennan to wins at #19 Arizona State tonight for the Little Rock wrestling team, Bianchi's second Pac-12 win in a row and Brennan's first conference win this season. The hosts claimed the 31-6 win thanks to their strong lower weights, but the Trojans only gave up bonus points in one of the last six matches.
"Overall, a tough night," said head coach
Neil Erisman, before adding, "It felt like we had a glimpse of hope at the end of every match. If we can carry that going into the Pac-12 Championships, we can flip a lot of matches and beat guys we need to be beating."
"We need to believe and trust in what we do," Coach Erisman continued. "We don't do anything different from these teams. It's just about believing in what we do and executing it. If we do that, we flip matches."
After a tough first four matches put the Trojans in an 18-0 hole,
Matty Bianchi collected a 4-3 decision at 157 pounds to get Little Rock on the board. Despite trailing 2-1 after the first period, Matty's escape from bottom tied it up going into the final two minutes. Arizona State chose bottom, and Bianchi cut him early for the opportunity to earn his takedown. A nearly minute-long scramble ended in Bianchi's favor as the redshirt freshmen never stopped fighting.
At 165 pounds,
Tyler Brennan gave Little Rock back to back wins. His sprawls prevented his Arizona State opponent from scoring, and his efforts found him on top in the first period. The Sun Devil foe chose bottom in the second, and Brennan rode out the entire period. He chose top for the last two minutes and locked in over four minutes of riding time, picking up two penalty points from stall calls for a 5-0 decision.
"It was good to see Tyler get back into the dub column," remarked Coach Erisman. "Tough, gritty win. I'm happy for Matty winning that match too. If those two continue to trust and believe, they can blow those matches open. If we all start wrestling to blow matches open, all those wins are going to happen."
Out of the five ranked opponents that the Trojans faced, only
Josiah Hill was able to hold his match to a decision. The heavyweight took on defending NCAA runner-up Cohlton Schultz to close out the dual. The Arizona State wrestler came out with an early takedown in the first period, but was unable to bring Hill down a second time throughout the entire seven minutes.
Little Rock has Saturday off before closing out the Pac-12 schedule on Sunday. The Trojans will begin the day at Cal Poly with a 1 p.m. CT match before making the trek over to CSU-Bakersfield with a 7 p.m. CT evening dual. View the remainder of the schedule
here.
RESULTS vs. #19 Arizona State
125: #8 Brandon Courtney (Arizona State) MD
Jeremiah Reno, 16-8
133: #4 Michael McGee (Arizona State) TF
Josh Sarpy, 17-1 (5:00)
141: #20 Jesse Vasquez (Arizona State) MD
Jayden Gomez,19-6
149: #5 Kyle Parco (Arizona State) TF
Joseph Bianchi, 20-2 (6:51)
157:
Matty Bianchi DEC Max Wilner (Arizona State), 4-3
165:
Tyler Brennan DEC Tony Negron (Arizona State), 5-0
174: Cael Valencia (Arizona State) DEC
Triston Wills, 5-1
184: #21 Anthony Montalvo (Arizona State) MD
Mason Diel, 13-3
197: Josh Nummer (Arizona State) DEC
Matthew Weinert, 4-2
285: #5 Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) DEC
Josiah Hill, 4-2
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