Pac-12 Championship
Cal Poly Freshman Devon Lotito Captures Pac-12 Title at 133 Pounds
3/2/2013 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
TEMPE, Arizona – Freshman Devon Lotito captured the championship at 133 pounds as the Cal Poly wrestling team competed in the Pac-12 Championship on Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena on the Arizona State campus.
Seeded third, Lotito drew a first-round bye, then won by default over Ian Nickell of CSU Bakersfield in the semifinals. The resident of Bethlehem, Penn., earned a 5-2 decision over top-seeded Brian Owen of Boise State for the title, improving his record to 29-7.
Lotito (pictured at right) avenged a 6-3 loss to Owen in the Reno Tournament of Champions in December.
Cal Poly's only other top-four finishers were 125-pounder Britain Longmire and 184-pounder Sean Dougherty. Both placed fourth.
Longmire was seeded fourth and posted a 2-2 mark, defeating Rami Haddadin of Boise State 7-5 in the opening round and Dalton Miller of Arizona State 11-6 in the wrestlebacks. He is 10-11 for the season.
Dougherty is now 24-15. The unseeded Mustang pinned third-seeded Ty Vinson of Oregon State in 6 minutes, 40 seconds, in the opening round and also pinned Sean Pollock of CSU Bakersfield in 3:54 before dropping the rematch against Vinson in the consolation final by a 5-4 decision.
Cal Poly finished last in the six-team field with 82 points. Oregon State captured its second straight Pac-12 team title with 158 points, followed by Boise State at 136.5 and Arizona State at 110.5.
Boise State's George Ivanov was awarded the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler for his conference-title winning effort at 157 pounds while Mike Mangrum of Oregon State earned the tournament's award for the most falls with his two in just under six-and-a-half minutes.
Lotito likely will be Cal Poly's lone representative in the 2013 NCAA Division I National Championship, slated for March 21-23 in Des Moines, Iowa. Dougherty will be considered for an at-large berth at 184 pounds, with those decisions to be announced by the NCAA next week.
Results for Cal Poly wrestlers:
125 – Britain Longmire(4) dec. Rami Haddadin (Boise State) 7-5, was dec. by Tyler Iwamura (CSU Bakersfield) 10-0, dec. Dalton Miller (Arizona State) 11-6, was dec. by Joey Palmer (Oregon State) 4-0 (fourth place)
133 – Devon Lotito (3) bye, won by default over Ian Nickell (CSU Bakersfield), dec. Brian Owen (Boise State) 5-2 (champion)
141 – Brandan Rocha was pinned by Mike Mangrum (Oregon State) 4:48, was dec. by Travis Himmelman (Boise State) 4-1, dec. Josh Lauderdale (Stanfored) 4-2 (fifth place)
149 – Dillen Rocha was pinned by Jason Chamberlain (Boise State) 3:43, was dec. by Nathan Hoffer (Arizona State) 10-3, was dec. by Dalton Kelley (CSU Bakersfield) 5-2 (sixth place)
157 – Kyle Chene was maj. dec. by RJ Pena (Oregon State) 14-2, was dec. by Adam Fierro (CSU Bakersfield) 7-1, was dec. by Joel Smith (Arizona State) 6-4 (sixth place)
165 – Connor King was dec. by Holden Packard (Boise State) 8-5, was maj. dec. by Codey Combs (Arizona State) 11-1, was maj. dec. by David Meza (CSU Bakersfield) 10-0 (sixth place)
174 – Mitch Woods was maj. dec. by Cody Weishoff (Oregon State) 8-0, was dec. by Scotty Bacon (Boise State) 9-2, was maj. dec. by Thomas Kimbrell (Stanford) 10-2 (sixth place)
184 – Sean Dougherty pinned Ty Vinson (Oregon State) 6:40, was maj. dec. by Kevin Radford (Arizona State) 13-3, pinned Sean Pollock (CSU Bakersfield) 3:54, was dec. by Ty Vinson (Oregon State) 5-4 (fourth place)
197 – J.T. Goodwin was maj. dec. by Jake Meredith (Arizona State) 12-0, was maj. dec. by Cody Dixon (Boise State) 12-4, was dec. by Frankie Hurtado (CSU Bakersfield) 6-2 (sixth place)
285 -- Forfeit
