Jade Rauser and Ethan Smith picked up victories for Utah Valley University wrestling Friday evening, but in the end the Wolverines fell to No. 20 Oregon State by a score of 36-6.

UVU drops to 2-5 on the season with the loss, while the Pac-12 Beavers improve to 8-0 with the win.

"Oregon State is a good team, but I felt like we wrestled better tonight than we did two weeks ago (against Wyoming) in some ways," head coach Greg Williams said. "There was definitely some progression shown. Our guys are working hard but we still need to be more efficient with our technique."

Trailing 11-0, Smith got the Wolverines on the board with an 8-3 decision over OSU's Joe Latham. With the UVU senior holding a slight 5-3 advantage midway through the final period, Smith converted a Latham shot into a takedown of his own and managed to ride the Beaver grappler out to pickup the additional riding time point. Smith put together a strong defensive effort in the contest, as he fought off a number of deep shots to improve to 12-8 on the season.

Junior Ross Taylor then picked up a quick takedown against former All-American and seventh-ranked Taylor Meeks in the next match at 184, but in the end Meeks got the best of Taylor with a 13-3 major decision to give the Beavers a 15-3 lead.

Two matches later, two-time NCAA qualifier Adam Fager and Nate Keeve went down to the wire at heavyweight, but riding time was the difference as Keeve pulled out the bout by a mere point (3-2). UVU junior Chasen Tolbert then gave No. 14 Ronnie Bresser all he could handle at 125, but the ranked Oregon State grappler managed to pull out the contest by a score of 7-4.

Rauser then picked up UVU's second victory of the evening with a 4-1 decision over Jack Hathaway at 133. With the bout scoreless, the two-time NCAA qualifier for the Wolverines got things going in the second period. Rauser scored a quick escape point and finished the period strong with a last-second takedown. Hathaway countered with an escape of his own in the third period, but Rauser was awarded a riding time point (1:06) to take the bout by three points. With the victory, Rauser improved his team-best record to 17-5.

Oregon State finished off the victory by taking the final two matches — one by fall and the other by decision. Of the eight bouts that the Beavers won on the night, five of them were via bonus points.

View Comments

The contest marked OSU's 11th straight dual victory. The match was contested in front of 1,091 fans at UVU's PE Building.

The Wolverines conclude their month-long home stand against another ranked foe from the Pac-12 Conference on Saturday afternoon. UVU and No. 25 Stanford do battle at 3:30 p.m., in the PE Building.

"We try to have as tough of a schedule as possible to prepare our guys for nationals. And we'll be ready to come out and battle on Saturday," Williams said.

James Warnick is an assistant sports information director at Utah Valley University. For more information about Wolverine athletics, visit WolverineGreen.com.

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.