Banquet - The Seniors!

 

Lucas Mondragon

Following the presentation of the awards, the six seniors on the team had their opportunity to share their thoughts with the crowd.

Lucas Mondragon, originally from Hood River, OR, looked back over his career at Oregon State and ahead to his future. He returned to campus for the banquet, as he has already graduated at the end of fall term. Lucas is now working for Multnomah County and has plans to apply for work with the FBI or Secret Service.

Tyler Sherman followed suit with a short talk on his years at

Tyler Sherman

Oregon State. Wrestling will continue to be a part of his life as he plans to return to his hometown of Dayton, Oregon, where he plans to work as a counselor and help coach wrestling.  

John Tuck

John Tuck, from LaGrande, OR, had his career cut short by injury earlier this season, so he focused his talk on the future. In John's case, working for the Fish and Wildlife Department figures large in his plans.


  Austin Morehead, Sutter, California, was a transfer, so he

Austin Morehead

has only been at Oregon State for the last two seasons. That was enough to accumulate a lot of happy memories. He was grateful for the support of his family, who did a lot of travelling to cheer on Austin and the Beavers.

RJ Pena

RJ Pena, Salem, OR, has many memories from his wrestling days at Oregon State and before. However, he announced that he will be switching his focus to a career in business, working with his father at Beaver State Insurance in Salem. In fact, he announced that anyone needing insurance should come see him! Who wouldn't want RJ in their corner?

Scott Sakaguchi, of Clovis, California, has also had a

Scott Sakaguchi

long and successful career in wrestling. He admitted the season hadn't ended for him as he had planned, but that he didn't back down to anyone. Although he did not mention it in his talk, I understand that he is looking forward to the challenge of the business world and a career in marketing, with an internship waiting for him.

Good luck to all of our seniors! "The FALL" Club wishes you all long and successful careers, and we hope that you return every chance you get to cheer on your Beaver successors! We'll see you in the stands!

Many thanks to Michael Denison for his photos of the seniors used here.

Go Beavs!

Banquet - The Awards!

Crowd taking in the program

 The first awards were handed out by The FALL Fan Club Board. 

We gave our inaugural awards for Volunteer of the Year and Wrestling Alumni Volunteer of the Year. 

The first winner for Volunteer of the Year was Susie Morehead, for her enthusiastic assistance to the Board in her two years with the Club. 

The first of the Wrestling Alumni Volunteer awards went to Ron Iwasaki, who has done so much for us and given so much support over the years, including this year. Ron is the one who rounds up all the beautiful flowers that you see decorating the tables at our important functions. 

Congratulations to both and thanks again!!


Next the 'Varsity O' letter winners were announced for first, second, third and fourth year. Coach Zalesky pointed out that there are 2 ways of earning a letter. One is to wrestle varsity. The other, and maybe more difficult, is to stick with the team for your entire college career, whether or not you make varsity. Congratulations to all the letter winners! (Sorry, I didn't write all their names down.) 

Pascoe, Steiner, & Mitch Swee

The specific awards followed. 

Coaches Appreciation - Mitch Swee

Booster of the Year - Marty Reser

Highest GPA (other than freshman) - Aaron David, with a 3.8

Team Impact Award - Amar Dhesi

Chad Flack "Most Improved"  Award - Toney Chay

Len Kauffman/Larry Bielenberg "Most Pins" Award - Jack Hathaway, with 12     

Coach Zalesky & Jack Hathaway

Bill Brickey "Most Dedicated" Award - Joe Latham

Dale Thomas "Hustle" Award - Taylor Meeks

Robin Reed "Outstanding Wrestler" Award - RJ Pena, Scott Sakaguchi

Hardest Worker Award - Joey Delgado, Abraham Rodriguez   

Abraham Rodriguez & Coach Roberts

All photos on this page are courtesy of Michael Denison, Board Member of "The FALL".
 
Congratulations to all the winners! Go Beavs!

Banquet - The Thank-You's!

tables set for the banquet

  "The FALL" Fan Club hosted the annual Wrestling Awards Banquet for 2013-14 on Saturday, April 12, in the Club at Reser Stadium. The Social hour began at 5:00 with guests vying for silent auction items and door prizes. Dinner started at 6:00, followed by the program.

Before I go into the award winners, "The FALL" Board would like to acknowledge all of those who supported the banquet with their donations of materials or cash.

First of all, thank you to Egan Gardens of Salem, Oregon, and Fessler Nursery of Woodburn, Oregon, for the blooming plants decorating the tables and stage! The plants add a festive touch to the room.

Thank you to all of the contributors of items used in the silent auction, Ron & Vi Brown, Don & Julie Hoskins, Craig Scharer and Ila Elder! Ila's donations were made in the memory of her late husband and ace Oregon State Wrestling fan, Marvin Elder. We miss you, Marvin!!

Thank you to our emcees, who took on the job for the first time this year, Associate Head Coach Troy Steiner and his sidekick, Assistant Coach Kevin Roberts! Nice job, guys!

This year we used a new system of donation levels. We had Pac-12 Champion Level - donations of $25-$49, NCAA All-American - donations of $50-$99, NCAA Champion donors made gifts of $100-$199 and finally, Hall of Fame Donors gave gifts of $200+. We really appreciate these donations, the banquet could not happen without them. A very big thank you to all of the following donors:

Hall Of Fame:
Marty & Susie Morehead

Azalea centerpiece

NCAA Champion:
Rolly & Carol Benson
Larry & Vicki Bielenberg
Brenda & Erik Engdahl
Len & Sheri Kauffman
Scott & Connie Lewis
Gerry Mahoney
Ronnie & Shelli Sakaguchi
Mike & Jamie VanAnrooy
Gary Westford


NCAA All-American:

tables awaiting guests

Gary Elder
Howard Horton
Ron & Linda Iwasaki
Don & Sandi Kuhns
Bob & Pat Newton
Craig Scharer
 
Pac-12 Champion:
Mark & Janet Gardner
Ken Noteboom
Doug & Monique Parazoo
Joe & Cindia Wells
Tobe & Janet Zweygardt

Thank you one and all!!

Coaches Roberts and Steiner emceeing the event

All photos on this page are courtesy of FALL Club President Craig Scharer. Thanks, Craig!

NCAA's III

174 - Joe Latham

In the upper weights, these Beavers represented the Oregon State Beavers at the NCAA's: junior Joe Latham, senior Austin Morehead, junior Taylor Meeks and freshman Amarveer Dhesi.

Thank you  to Michael Denison, FALL Club Board member, who provided his great photographs for these pages!

184 - Austin Morehead

197 - Taylor Meeks

 

285 - Amar Dhesi

NCAA's - II

133 - Joey Palmer

Oregon State took 8 out of their 10 starters to the NCAA's.

149 Scott Sakaguchi

141 - Joey Delgado

149 - Sakguchi working on an opponent

 In the lower weights, NCAA qualifiers were sophomore Joey Palmer at 133, freshman Joey Delgado at 141, senior Scott Sakaguchi at 149 and  senior RJ Pena at 157.

157 - RJ Pena

Thanks to Michael Denison for providing these great action shots!

NCAA's - I

  Time for a look back at the 2014 NCAA's before we close out the wrestling season. I was on a trip out of the country, so I didn't have a chance to do any posts while the action was still happening.

This year the Div I Wrestling Championships took place in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at the Chesapeake Energy arena, just down the road from the Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

As a result of their performance during the season and/or the results of the Pac-12's - which the Beavers won, Yes!! - Oregon State took eight wrestlers to the final tournament of the season.

Jim Zalesky, Troy Steiner & Mitch Swee (behind Troy)

Quite a few of Beaver Nation were there, decked out in their matching t-shirts, ready to cheer the Beav's on to victory.

Orange t-shirt day at the NCAA's!

White t-shirt day for the Oregon State section

Photos courtesy of Michael Denison, thank you!

High-five for a Beaver moment!