Cal Poly Wrestling Heads to Corvallis for Pac-12 Championships

Sunday, March 10

Corvallis, OR

All Day

Pac-12 Championships

Photo by: Eyasu Betwos

Cal Poly Wrestling Heads to Corvallis for Pac-12 Championships

3/7/2024 11:55:00 AM | Wrestling

CHAMPIONSHIP BRACKETS
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Automatic berths to the NCAA Championships and conference superiority will be up for grabs when Cal Poly wrestling descends upon Corvallis, Oregon, on Sunday for the 2024 Pac-12 Championships.

The Mustangs will square off against wrestlers from the five other teams in the Pac-12 — Arizona State, Cal State Bakersfield, Little Rock, Oregon State and Stanford — for NCAA bids. Action on the mat starts at 10 a.m. Sunday inside Gill Coliseum with first-round bouts. The second session at the tournament begins at 4:45 p.m. with championship matches in each weight class scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Bouts during the first and second sessions can be watched on Oregon State's Live Stream (Mat 1 and Mat 2) and on Pac-12.com, while the first-place matches will be broadcasted live on Pac-12 Network and the Pac-12 Now App.

Nine of the 10 weight classes feature six-man brackets, while the 174-pound bracket is made up of just five wrestlers. The top two seeds in each class will be receiving byes, while first-round matches will pit the No. 6 seed against the No. 3 seed, and the No. 5 seed against the No. 4 seed.

Graduate student Adam Kemp is the highest seeded Mustang entering the championships, earning the No. 1 seed at 174 pounds. Kemp is ranked ninth in the nation in his weight class with a 14-3 record this season. Little Rock's Tyler Brennan, No. 19 in the country, is the No. 2 seed in Kemp's weight class. Kemp has defeated Brennan twice this season, topping him by a 3-0 decision at the Tiger Style Invite on Nov. 11 and by a 3-2 decision in a dual on Feb. 3. Kemp placed second at 174 pounds at the 2022 Pac-12 Championships, securing an automatic berth to NCAAs.

Five other Mustangs boast national rankings heading into the Pac-12 Championships.

Redshirt sophomore Chance Lamer checks in at No. 10 at 149 pounds with a 15-3 mark this spring. He is seeded third in his weight class behind two-time defending Pac-12 champion Kyle Parco from Arizona State (No. 1) and 2021 Pac-12 champion Jaden Abas from Stanford (No. 2). Chance qualified for NCAAs last year as a redshirt freshman while wrestling for Michigan, posting a 3-2 record at the event en route to a spot in the Round of 12.

Redshirt freshman Zeth Romney has had an incredible season thus far and is seeded No. 2 at 133 pounds. Currently ranked 11th in the nation with a 17-6 mark, the Simi Valley, Calif. native has been named the Pac-12 Wrestler of the Week twice this season, becoming the first Mustang to receive the honor more than once. In late December at the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships, Romney placed third — the second-highest individual finish ever by a Cal Poly wrestler at the tournament. When Romney takes the mat Sunday, it will mark his first action since wrestling in a dual at Little Rock on Feb. 3 where he fell by a 7-1 decision to Nasir Bailey, the top seed heading into Pac-12s.

Redshirt sophomore Trevor Tinker is also seeded No. 2 in his weight class. The 22nd-ranked heavyweight owns a 12-3 record this season. Last year, Tinker captured second at the Pac-12 Championships, falling to three-time Pac-12 champion Cohlton Schultz from Arizona State in the championship match. Despite the defeat, Tinker was able to secure an at-large berth to the NCAA Championships. Tinker finished sixth at Midlands in December and was one of three placers for the Mustangs at the tournament — a program record.

Redshirt junior Legend Lamer (157 pounds) and redshirt freshman Dom Mendez (125 pounds) are both ranked 27th in the nation in their respective weight classes and enter Sunday as No. 4 seeds. Mendez, who will be making his first appearance at the Pac-12 Championships, will face CSU Bakersfield's Richie Sandoval in his first-round match, who he has beaten twice this season. Legend (11-7) is a two-time NCAA qualifier and has placed runner-up at the Pac-12 Championships twice (2022, 2021), both times at 149 pounds.

Redshirt sophomore Jarad Priest (197 pounds) enters the tournament as a fourth seed, redshirt sophomores Abe Hinrichsen (141 pounds) and Kendall La Rosa (184 pounds) are both No. 5 seeds, and Michael Goldfeder is sixth at 165 pounds to round out the 10 Mustangs that will compete Sunday.

Last year, Cal Poly claimed its first-ever Pac-12 dual meet title and went on to place third at the conference championships, the program's highest finish in the Pac-12 finals since the 2009-10 season.

Five of the 10 weight classes at this year's Pac-12 Championships feature at least four wrestlers that are nationally ranked by InterMat or the NCAA Coaches.

The 2024 NCAA Championships will take place March 21-23 at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

125-pound seeds (InterMat Rankings/NCAA Coaches Rankings)