Unofficial Record Crowd Comes Out To OSU Wrestling Endowment Meet Sunday

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Wrestling fans in the state of Oregon certainly showed their love for the sport Sunday when the No. 20 Oregon State wrestling team took on No. 10 Boise State at legendary Gill Coliseum.

While the Beavers may have lost to the Broncos, 31-6, they were certainly winners in the big picture as a crowd of 3,243 showed up to watch the two Pacific-10 Conference rivals do battle at Gill. The announced crowd was the largest in more than 20 years for a single-day match, eclipsing the 3,018 that showed up to watch the 2009-10 Endowment Meet against the same Broncos.

The 3,243 in attendance is believed to be a “modern-day” OSU record as attendance figures are not available prior to 1990.

“That’s just an outstanding sign of support we have from our fans,” Oregon State head coach Jim Zalesky. “Obviously, we would have liked to have made it a closer match, but you have to give Boise State credit; they are a very good squad. We look forward to seeing them back here at Gill during the Pac-10 Championships. Even though they won, it was a win for both teams because of the support the sport received here Sunday.”

Colby Covington and Clayton Jack were the lone victors for the Beavers (8-5-2) as Boise State took eight of the 10 bouts.

Covington’s win at 174 pounds over No. 11 Jake Swartz came via decision at 12-6 and highlighted the afternoon as he improved his win streak to 11 consecutive bouts. Covington is 3-0 over Swartz this year after defeating him, 13-4 and 3-1 in earlier bouts.

Covington also pushed his win to two-in-a-row over ranked wrestlers as he defeated then-No. 6 Nick Amuchastegui of Stanford last week.

Jack, meanwhile, pushed his season record to 18-8 this season when he downed T.J. Felix in the heavyweight bout. Jack is 2-0 against Felix this season, having defeated him, 7-2, at the National Duals.

Boise State (8-2-1) took the first four bouts from the Beavers to go up 14-0 before Covington’s decision over Swartz put the Beavers on the board with three points. The Broncos pushed themselves to a 21-3 lead before Jack’s win over Felix, which proved to be OSU’s final points of the afternoon.

The Beavers were close at 149 and 165 as Scott Sakaguchi and Jon Brascetta lost by close decisions. Sakaguchi’s came at the hands of No. 3 Jason Chamberlain, who went up 3-0 in the series between the two this season. However, he has won them by a combined seven points.

Brascetta, meanwhile, took Kurt Swartz down to the wire. Swartz picked up an escape six seconds into the third period and Brascetta was unable to score through the rest of the bout.

Oregon State makes its final road trip of the 2010-11 regular season Friday when visiting Northern Colorado in Greely. Visit osubeavers.com later this week for a preview of the dual and check back Friday night for a full recap and lists of results for the dual against the Bears.

No. 10 Boise State 31, No. 20 Oregon State 6

141 – Levi Jones (BSU) decision Mike Mangrum (OSU), 9-2. BSU 3, OSU 0

149 – Jason Chamberlain (BSU) decision Scott Sakaguchi (OSU), 6-3. BSU 6, OSU 0

157 – Adam Hall (BSU) technical fall Alex Elder (OSU), 26-8. BSU 11, OSU 0

165 – Kurt Swartz (BSU) decision Jon Brascetta (OSU), 3-2. BSU 14, OSU 0

174 – Colby Covington (OSU) decision Jake Swartz (BSU), 12-6. BSU 14, OSU 3

184 – Kirk Smith (BSU) major decision Brice Arand (OSU), 9-0. BSU 18, OSU 3

197 – Matt Casperson (BSU) decision Chad Hanke (OSU), 10-5. BSU 21, OSU 3

HWT – Clayton Jack (OSU) decision T.J. Felix (BSU), 10-5. BSU 21, OSU 6

125 – Allen Bartelli (BSU) fall Christian Strahl (OSU), 4:08. BSU 27, OSU 6

133 – Andrew Hochstrasser (BSU) major decision Garrett Drucker (OSU), BSU 31, OSU 6

Courtesy of Hank Hager, Assistant Director, Athletic Communications, Oregon State Athletics