A few years ago, I went to the store with two of my friends to get cookies. I had $3, but my friends were broke. Each cookie cost $1, so I bought two cookies- one for myself and the other for my best friend. I didn’t want to buy a third cookie for my other friend because I wanted to save my money. Essentially, I cared to invest in myself and my closer friend of the two, but not my other friend.
This demonstrates the paradox which Kansas City bestowed upon itself. Historically speaking, “a lack of investment leads to a lack of empathy. A lack of empathy leads to not getting a plethora of resources needed,” CEO and President of Community Builders of Kansas City, Emmet Pierson said. This results in economic disparity and with little to no empathy leads Kansas City towards a spiral of separation between economic and racial classes. This generalization of the paradox in America is called redlining.
While racial and economic issues continue to linger in most major cities in the United States, it is a particularly grim problem in Kansas City. The alarming increase in abandoned buildings and housing in KCMO exacerbates the issue and readily makes it abundantly more clear.
In Kansas City, the devaluation of eastern Kansas City neighborhoods led to its lack of investment of infrastructure, education and every other primary necessities by the city.
“Right at Blue Parkway and Cleveland, we have a shopping center, and it’s anchored by a grocery store. So we built it. The cost was roughly about $21 million… The first appraisal came in at $13.7 million,” Pierson said.
The housing and land markets are clearly devalued when the cost of construction is significantly higher than its appraised value. This is the reason abandoned buildings and houses are prominent in east Kansas City, while seemingly scarce in the city’s western counterpart. To put it simply, it’s business 101. It is unfathomable to build something that costs more than its market value.
This plays a large factor in the city’s abandoned building/housing crisis over the past two decades. It is concerning that a prominent crisis like this has seemingly gone unsolved. In 2019, the City of Fountains had over 100,000 abandoned houses and thousands of vacated lots and buildings, according to the Abandoned to Vibrant (A2B) project- led by University of Missouri-Kansas City associate professor Jim DeLisle. That’s enough houses to be listed sixth in vacated homes by a city in America according to 24/7 Wall St.
While driving past ungroomed lawns in front of shambled buildings is unsettling, it barely touches the surface to the true issue at play.
University of Pennsylvania Cartographic Modeling Lab Papers studied the relationship between aggravated assault and abandoned buildings and found a statistically significant association between the two. But it’s not unique to just assault.
In fact, the cities in Missouri that lead in eviction rates also lead in gun homicides per the Gun Violence Archive and Princeton University’s Eviction Lab.
These areas turned into crime ridden neighborhoods impart because of the city’s devaluation and lack of investment, yet the two issues readily exacerbate each other.
If low-income pollutes a particular neighborhood, then that community won’t receive loans from the bank just as a failing school won’t be accredited nor given an adequate amount of public funding. Similarly, if crime is high in a particular neighborhood, then insurance premiums skyrocket accordingly.
Yet, as crime in an area rises, its investment plummets. Where does that investment go? Education, housing, infrastructure, welfare and other government agencies Americans have deemed essential.
But if all of these issues exacerbate each other, and impoverished and low-income Kansas Citians are hard workers- contrary to the notion that all poor Americans on welfare programs are lazy- then how did this all start?
The National Housing Act of 1934 sparked a national housing boom with low-cost, low-term mortgages. Once vacant plots of land turned into towns, parks, schools and any other aspect that are fundamental to a strong community. It became a realtor's gold mine and the birth of Suburbia, America. Yet, African-Americans were not allowed in.
In Kansas City, for example, J.C. Nichols owned most of the land properties in the metropolitan area at this time. He is known largely for his contributions to the Kansas City Plaza- the first “walking shopping mall” in America- and for essentially mapping out the municipality as seen today. He turned the land he owned into the KC suburbs- Shawnee, Mission Hills, Lenexa, etc. He strategically placed the Country Club Plaza- corporation’s Disneyland- near these suburbs so that these neighborhoods could yield higher economic growth and investments in order for higher access to resources.
Yet, his deeds had restrictive racial covenants. He prohibited black Americans from owning, renting or occupying homes in these new towns.
In fact, 96% of all Johnson County properties had similar restrictions- according to “Building the Troost Wall: Structural Racism in Kansas City”- a documentary by Michael Wesch and Nathaniel Bozarth addressing the issues of structural racism in KC. Thus, White America moved to the outskirts of cities, while Black America remained in the inner city. This separated communities based on skin color, which in a nutshell is racist. Yet, this is merely the beginning of the issue. The Federal Housing Administration developed a system to decide who could receive the low-cost loans granted by the Housing Act of 1934.
These newer developed towns located just outside a major city were considered safe investments; whereas, inner city land was thought to be risky investments leading them, “to disrepair and decline,” Michael Wesch said on “Building the Troost Wall: Structural Racism in Kansas City.”
Amid Black America’s demise, there became a power struggle and White America took control. After redlining was outlawed, the new wave of taking advantage of African Americans was called blockbusting. In theory, it incentivized more white people to move towards the suburbs, but in reality real estate agents devalued the housing market in particular neighborhoods- Black America or streets east of Troost Avenue- in order to cash a bigger commission check. African Americans became trapped particularly for two reasons.
The first being that upon recently moving into predominantly white neighborhoods blockbusting immediately destroyed their wallets. How can you make money on an asset whose price dropped a considerable amount overnight? Not to fret because making money relies on good connections, but those relationships don’t occur when white flight strips white and black Americans from ever interacting.
“As people were blockbusted and essentially convinced to leave and hightail it to Johnson County, all that money left and it went into the Shawnee Mission school district,” east Kansas City resident Nick Dorn said.
This segregation per se created a cycle of dependency and power struggle. The government gives money, or should I say welfare (better yet “handouts”), to those who ask for it. You don’t just receive food stamps or medicare, you have to apply to receive it. In other words, you have to know where to go and how to apply to get welfare, just like any government agency offering money- which boils down to who you know. Put more clearly, it’s about connections.
Black America already lacked access to low-cost loans and mortgages which resulted in an unprecedented amount of crime, stifling debt and poverty and lack of education. The ‘50s were supposed to be a turning point for African Americans. They could finally live in white neighborhoods- areas where banks offered an innumerable amount of benefits. White flight made sure that wasn’t the case, however. At the very least, African Americans’ white neighbors or colleagues surely would help them in terms of networking, but alas white flight destroyed any possibility of this.
As connections boiled, small business opportunities in Black Kansas City dissipated more and more. Small businesses are the backbone to any prospering community too.
These connections can come in several different varieties. For example, 63% of the eligible applicants for the COVID-19 relief grants from Kansas City on the east side did not receive a Paycheck Protection Program loan.
As Emmet Pierson said, “A lack of empathy leads to not getting a plethora of resources needed.” Thus, west Kansas City’s constant lack of investment into its eastern counterparts led to more than half of eastern Kansas City’s PPP loan applicants being rejected. However, that’s not to say KC’s western hemisphere is to blame completely for these rejected applications rather a means of awareness to who the rich are accustomed to helping- which is themselves.
Due to a quality of investment, schools began to close, less jobs became available in these neighborhoods, and opportunities seemingly were bleak. While White America was able to take advantage of the cheap land when they wanted to, these residents aren’t able to afford to buy out vacated land. It is a primitive representation of the impacts and issues of redlining and blockbusting, yet it also further separates east Kansas City from west Kansas City. When one community has so little money that they can’t afford to buy cheap plots of land that another community has the luxury of doing, there’s a problem. It demonstrates that society has successfully equipped one facet of the country with resources, money, and the education to take care of these abandoned areas; whereas the other doesn’t have enough money to pay next month’s rent. Municipalities and governments present west Kansas City with a set of opportunities not offered to east Kansas City, and they are left to survive off of “handouts.”
Because of specific opportunities that aren’t available to the east side of Kansas City, it makes utilizing and buying these abandoned buildings and homes increasingly more difficult to purchase. Insurance costs go through the roof when houses or buildings are in more dangerous neighborhoods. Construction companies neglect to build there because the appraisals are far cheaper than the cost to build it.
In fact, the cities in Missouri that lead in eviction rates also lead in gun homicides per the Gun Violence Archive and Princeton University’s Eviction Lab.
These areas turned into crime ridden neighborhoods impart because of the city’s devaluation and lack of investment, yet the two issues readily exacerbate each other.
If low-income pollutes a particular neighborhood, then that community won’t receive loans from the bank just as a failing school won’t be accredited nor given an adequate amount of public funding. Similarly, if crime is high in a particular neighborhood, then insurance premiums skyrocket accordingly.
Yet, as crime in an area rises, its investment plummets. Where does that investment go? Education, housing, infrastructure, welfare and other government agencies Americans have deemed essential.
But if all of these issues exacerbate each other, and impoverished and low-income Kansas Citians are hard workers- contrary to the notion that all poor Americans on welfare programs are lazy- then how did this all start?
The National Housing Act of 1934 sparked a national housing boom with low-cost, low-term mortgages. Once vacant plots of land turned into towns, parks, schools and any other aspect that are fundamental to a strong community. It became a realtor's gold mine and the birth of Suburbia, America. Yet, African-Americans were not allowed in.
In Kansas City, for example, J.C. Nichols owned most of the land properties in the metropolitan area at this time. He is known largely for his contributions to the Kansas City Plaza- the first “walking shopping mall” in America- and for essentially mapping out the municipality as seen today. He turned the land he owned into the KC suburbs- Shawnee, Mission Hills, Lenexa, etc. He strategically placed the Country Club Plaza- corporation’s Disneyland- near these suburbs so that these neighborhoods could yield higher economic growth and investments in order for higher access to resources.
Yet, his deeds had restrictive racial covenants. He prohibited black Americans from owning, renting or occupying homes in these new towns.
In fact, 96% of all Johnson County properties had similar restrictions- according to “Building the Troost Wall: Structural Racism in Kansas City”- a documentary by Michael Wesch and Nathaniel Bozarth addressing the issues of structural racism in KC. Thus, White America moved to the outskirts of cities, while Black America remained in the inner city. This separated communities based on skin color, which in a nutshell is racist. Yet, this is merely the beginning of the issue. The Federal Housing Administration developed a system to decide who could receive the low-cost loans granted by the Housing Act of 1934.
These newer developed towns located just outside a major city were considered safe investments; whereas, inner city land was thought to be risky investments leading them, “to disrepair and decline,” Michael Wesch said on “Building the Troost Wall: Structural Racism in Kansas City.”
Amid Black America’s demise, there became a power struggle and White America took control. After redlining was outlawed, the new wave of taking advantage of African Americans was called blockbusting. In theory, it incentivized more white people to move towards the suburbs, but in reality real estate agents devalued the housing market in particular neighborhoods- Black America or streets east of Troost Avenue- in order to cash a bigger commission check. African Americans became trapped particularly for two reasons.
The first being that upon recently moving into predominantly white neighborhoods blockbusting immediately destroyed their wallets. How can you make money on an asset whose price dropped a considerable amount overnight? Not to fret because making money relies on good connections, but those relationships don’t occur when white flight strips white and black Americans from ever interacting.
“As people were blockbusted and essentially convinced to leave and hightail it to Johnson County, all that money left and it went into the Shawnee Mission school district,” east Kansas City resident Nick Dorn said.
This segregation per se created a cycle of dependency and power struggle. The government gives money, or should I say welfare (better yet “handouts”), to those who ask for it. You don’t just receive food stamps or medicare, you have to apply to receive it. In other words, you have to know where to go and how to apply to get welfare, just like any government agency offering money- which boils down to who you know. Put more clearly, it’s about connections.
Black America already lacked access to low-cost loans and mortgages which resulted in an unprecedented amount of crime, stifling debt and poverty and lack of education. The ‘50s were supposed to be a turning point for African Americans. They could finally live in white neighborhoods- areas where banks offered an innumerable amount of benefits. White flight made sure that wasn’t the case, however. At the very least, African Americans’ white neighbors or colleagues surely would help them in terms of networking, but alas white flight destroyed any possibility of this.
As connections boiled, small business opportunities in Black Kansas City dissipated more and more. Small businesses are the backbone to any prospering community too.
These connections can come in several different varieties. For example, 63% of the eligible applicants for the COVID-19 relief grants from Kansas City on the east side did not receive a Paycheck Protection Program loan.
As Emmet Pierson said, “A lack of empathy leads to not getting a plethora of resources needed.” Thus, west Kansas City’s constant lack of investment into its eastern counterparts led to more than half of eastern Kansas City’s PPP loan applicants being rejected. However, that’s not to say KC’s western hemisphere is to blame completely for these rejected applications rather a means of awareness to who the rich are accustomed to helping- which is themselves.
Due to a quality of investment, schools began to close, less jobs became available in these neighborhoods, and opportunities seemingly were bleak. While White America was able to take advantage of the cheap land when they wanted to, these residents aren’t able to afford to buy out vacated land. It is a primitive representation of the impacts and issues of redlining and blockbusting, yet it also further separates east Kansas City from west Kansas City. When one community has so little money that they can’t afford to buy cheap plots of land that another community has the luxury of doing, there’s a problem. It demonstrates that society has successfully equipped one facet of the country with resources, money, and the education to take care of these abandoned areas; whereas the other doesn’t have enough money to pay next month’s rent. Municipalities and governments present west Kansas City with a set of opportunities not offered to east Kansas City, and they are left to survive off of “handouts.”
Because of specific opportunities that aren’t available to the east side of Kansas City, it makes utilizing and buying these abandoned buildings and homes increasingly more difficult to purchase. Insurance costs go through the roof when houses or buildings are in more dangerous neighborhoods. Construction companies neglect to build there because the appraisals are far cheaper than the cost to build it.
Arizona State (1-1) fell to Dixie State (1-1) 7-6 on Saturday night. The Sun Devils and Trailblazers took this game into extras after a back-and-forth nine innings of baseball.
After Mathew Ivancich laid down a bunt in the tenth inning, Tyson Fisher brought in the game-winning run for Dixie State.
ASU started the game off really well, picking up two runs in the first inning, and one in the third.
The Sun Devils amassed four hits in those first three innings of the game with one of them being a home run by sophomore outfielder Joe Lampe in the third.
Lampe had a great night with two singles, a double, a home run, two RBIs, three runs, and one stolen base.
Senior first baseman Conor Davis and sophomore second baseman Sean McLain also had solid nights at the plate on Saturday. McLain doubled and picked up the RBI to open the scoring. Davis went 3-for-4 with one run.
“[Davis] is doing what he’s expecting himself to do,” coach Willie Bloomquist said. “We all kind of understand that he can get hot and can carry us.”
While the Sun Devils got on the board early, Bloomquist thinks they struggled to hit balls into play as opposed to sending the ball high into the desert night sky.
“There’s a few guys that are trying to do too much,” Bloomquist said. “We had a message during the game to just start putting together solid at-bats. Quit trying to put the ball over the scoreboard.”
The Sun Devils lacked situational hitting in the first couple of innings but improved upon it in the later innings of the game. Sophomore right fielder Kai Murphy almost put the ball over the wall, but he ended up with a double in the bottom of the ninth inning being down 6-5.
“Yeah, I thought I got it,” Murphy said. “The ball doesn’t fly as well in February as it does a little later in the year.”
After Murphy got on first, freshman catcher Alex Champagne bunted for a single which got Murphy to third. McLain got out of a double play and Murphy scored the tying run.
“We started doing that a little bit in the latter half of the game there,” Bloomquist said. “After we got behind in the fifth inning, we started putting together pretty good at-bats. Starting in the sixth or seventh, the guys started looking like an offense.”
Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, it wasn’t enough to clinch a series win over the Trail Blazers.
“That team over there is scrappy,” Bloomquist said. “They execute the fundamentals very well.”
Those fundamentals helped Dixie State get the go-ahead run in the top of the tenth inning.
Junior RHP Kyle Luckham had a great start for ASU. He pitched 5 1/3 innings and gave up only five hits and three runs with three strikeouts too.
Things turned awry for Luckham and the Sun Devils in the top of the sixth inning, where he recorded just one out while loading the bases. After Bloomquist opted to go to his bullpen, sophomore LHP Graham Osman took the mound.
Two of his first few pitches reached the backstop allowing two trailblazers to score. Osman recorded one strikeout, one earned run, one hit, and one walk before getting the final two outs of the fifth inning.
Command and control issues plagued the bullpen tonight, as the relievers allowed seven hits and four runs through 5 2/3 innings.
“We try to preach to not beat yourself,” Bloomquist said. “Throw strike one, get ahead. Work the tempo. Execute your game plan. Obviously, that didn’t go as planned tonight for the most part.”
After the seventh inning, when Dixie State tied the game at five, the Sun Devils never led again.
“It was a game we felt we let slip away from us,” Bloomquist said.
The Sun Devils play the Trail Blazers tomorrow at 12:30 pm in the final game of their opening series of the 2022 season.
Arizona State lost to BYU 19-3 on Saturday afternoon in a game where the pitching staff made costly mistakes. The Sun Devils used nine different pitchers and gave up a total of 19 hits and walked seven BYU hitters.
Pitching and situational hitting have been huge dead spots for the Sun Devils early in the season and cost them the series finale against the Cougars on Saturday.
“I don’t separate the two (pitching and offense),” coach Willie Bloomquist said. “They go hand-in-hand. We’re one team. Today, they both were not very good.”
Last weekend, Bloomquist mentioned that ASU needs to create solid at-bats rather than swinging for the fences, which didn’t happen in this game really until the ninth inning. However, the offensive woes were far less harmful than the pitching mishaps.
Only two pitchers, senior right-handed pitcher Boyd Vander Kooi and junior right-handed pitcher Andrew Lucas, stayed on the mound for more than just three outs. They were also the only pitchers to retire the Cougars’ side and they both did it twice in four consecutive innings.
“Of the few bright spots, that was probably the biggest two, Boyd and Andrew,” Bloomquist said. “They came in and threw the ball pretty well.”
Vander Kooi struck out two batters while giving up zero hits and zero runs. Only sophomore left-handed pitcher Danny Marshall and Vander Kooi recorded zero baserunners and no runs.
Lucas’ stat-line on Saturday may have been inflated in the eighth inning due to coach Willie Bloomquist’s reluctance to pull him after the seventh.
“I accept responsibility for running [Lucas] back out there one more inning,” Bloomquist said. “I probably should’ve cut him right thereafter the second good inning (seventh).”
Last week, command and control issues surfaced for the ASU pitching rotation and bullpen, which caused some scare from the coaching staff.
This was not the case on Saturday, however. Sophomore right-handed pitcher Josh Hansell received the nod to start on the mound for the Sun Devils. Hansell didn’t struggle to find the strike zone but had a tough time getting guys out and off the bases.
“Go back and look at it,” Bloomquist said. “There wasn’t anything mechanical that he was doing wrong. Left the ball up in the zone, and good hitters are going to take advantage of that.”
Hansell pitched just one inning and recorded four hits, four runs, and one strikeout. He also threw two wild pitches in the top of the first inning.
The rest of the pitching staff, except for Vander Kooi and Lucas, faced a similar fate. One or fewer innings pitched, multiple hits and a handful of runners made a trip to home plate safely.
Sophomore right-handed pitcher Tyler Meyer, who is expected to start in the two-game series against No. 4 Oklahoma State next week, pitched for the final two outs of the top of the ninth inning. “He was going to throw bullpen today, anyways,” Bloomquist said. “That was just a way to kind of get him an inning or get him 15 pitches or so to keep him sharp… and let’s be honest, just to get us to the finish line. I don’t know if that could’ve gotten much uglier, but I didn’t want to find out.”
Meyer struck out one of the four batters he faced while only giving up two hits and zero runs in the top of the ninth.
After the first two weeks of the college baseball season, ASU’s bullpen has drawn a lot of criticism for its performance which has the coaches rushing to fix several key issues for the Sun Devils.
“We can’t want it more than the players, and right now I think the staff does to an extent,” hitting coach Travis Buck said. “Our goal is to get these guys ready to play every day, and right now they are giving their best effort, but I think the pride factor. I didn’t see much pride today.”
Pitching coach Sam Peraza claims that part of the struggles of the pitchers’ mentality spawns from a failure to calm their nerves down.
“I think they are really amped up,” Peraza said. “We’ve taxed our bullpen a little bit before today. Prior to today, they pitched really well, but they’ve all come very amped up. Not calming their nerves down a little bit.”
Peraza claims that part of the problem stems from throwing in a load of different pitchers to establish a game plan for the Sun Devils’ pitching staff. ASU has put a lot of different pitchers on the mound in the first seven games of the season, which Peraza says could be hindering pitchers’ ability to mentally prepare for their outing on the mound.
“I think what could help a little bit is once we establish roles and I know we’ve used these seven days to kind of establish roles and we’ve seen our starters give us some length, they may know when they are coming in a little bit easier and I think that may help them prepare a little bit better,” Peraza said.
Peraza noted that in a game like the series finale against BYU the coaching staff wasn’t able to use pitchers the way they anticipated and couldn’t establish roles, but added that plan on using Vander Kooi for longer stretches of the game later on this season.
“We tried some of those two-way guys to see what they are capable of doing, and get Boyd out there, which I think was the one positive in all of this. Seeing him go out there for two innings and once we can start stretching him out, I feel really good about potentially getting him back in the starting rotation.”
Certainly, Bloomquist and the rest of the coaching staff are still working on the pitchers’ mental preparation, but for now, it’s about getting reps and learning how to play in some tough situations.
Next Tuesday, ASU plays No. 4 Oklahoma State at Phoenix Municipal in a two-game series where the Sun Devils need to make major improvements on the mound if they want to reap any success.
“We can’t play like that,” Bloomquist said. “We have to get back to the basics, but for me, it’s a mentality.”
ASU now sits at 3-4 and has given up five or more runs in four of those seven games.
TEMPE – Arizona State Men’s Hockey will trade its swimming trunks and shorts in exchange for winter jackets and gloves when it heads to Mankato, Minn. this weekend for a series against the No. 1 ranked school in the nation. The Sun Devils are taking on Minnesota State, which could prove to be key to finding consistency and continuing their recent road success.
“That’s the one thing we’ve been missing this year is just consistency and winning on the road,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “We’ve generally been a very good road team. The two seasons we qualified to the tournament prior to last year we had over a .500 record on the road.”
This season, the Sun Devils have struggled to win road games until the past couple weeks, as they’ve won three consecutive contests against No. 15 Northeastern and RIT. If they win out, the Sun Devils will have a .500 record on the road. Winning in snowy Minnesota won’t be an easy feat, however.
Minnesota State senior goaltender Dryden McKay has the third-highest winning percentage amongst all goalies in the country – sitting at a 23-4 record – and the second-fewest goals allowed per game nationwide. In 1,596 minutes on the ice, he has let in just 33 goals.
“You know they have a good goalie right off the bat, so we’re going to have to get bodies in front, pucks to the net,” senior forward Colin Theisen said. “Create that chaos in order to pop some in on [McKay].”
Defensively, Minnesota State has only given up 15 goals at home. It has let in a mere 35 goals in total this season, which is the second-fewest in the nation.
“We know they are going to bring back pressure, so we got to play with pace,” Theisen said.
Its penalty kill is almost as impressive. Minnesota State has allowed just 13 goals off 98 power-play chances, giving them the 11th best penalty-killing percentage.
The Mavericks have one of the best defenses in the country, and their offense is just as elite.
They’ve amassed 64 goals and averaged nearly five goals per game in Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center this season. The Mavericks have the highest-scoring offense nationwide this season, with 115 goals in 28 games.
They have three players inside the top 10 of the country’s assist leaders with junior forwards Nathan Smith and Brendan Furry and senior forward Julian Napravnik. They also have two inside the top 25 on the NCAA goals leaderboard – Smith and junior forward Ryan Sandelin.
Despite the team’s stellar offense and defense this season, perhaps what’s most impressive has been its success at home.
The Mavericks have won 11 straight games in their barn with their sole loss in Mankato this year coming against No. 6 St. Cloud State in October. Their goal differential at home is +49, compared to that of ASU’s road goal differential, which is a mere -14.
Surely, it’s a tough challenge for the Sun Devils, especially with the series likely being their only hopes at sneaking into the 2022 NCAA Tournament, but they are confident that they can compete with one of the best teams in college hockey if they play at their best.
“We look forward to the opportunity to play these guys at what spot they’re at,” Theisen said. “At the end of the day, we are trying to position ourselves to get in the tournament. Once you’re in the tournament, you’re going to play teams like this all the way through, so getting a good squad weekend against this team is going to be huge for us.”
Arizona State Men’s Hockey lost to the Minnesota State Mavericks 5-3 on Saturday night. The No. 1 ranked team in the country outshot ASU 47-24, led by a second-period shooting fest from the Mavericks.
Minnesota State racked up 23 shots in the middle period, which gave them plenty of zone time and helped them gain momentum.
“Just another bad second period,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “Took a few penalties to start it, and they just played downhill on us.”
ASU virtually had back-to-back-to-back penalties, featuring freshman defenseman Ty Murchison getting called for cross-checking twice in the span of a minute.
“When you get six straight minutes on the kill against that team, that’s what is going to happen,” Powers said. “Another second period got away.”
Powers noted that mismanaging the puck led to costly mistakes which inevitably cost ASU the game. The Mavericks found lots of zone time and power-play opportunities in the second period on behalf of those miscues.
“You can’t make mistakes against a team that good,” Powers said.
ASU is really good on the kill when it “kills it up ice,” Powers said.
That didn’t seem to occur on Saturday.
He added: “When we’re frustrating them, and it gives our bench energy, but they were buzzing.”
Despite scoring just one power-play goal, the Mavericks kept the puck in their offensive third of the ice when they played a man-up.
Minnesota State scored four consecutive goals before freshman forward Josh Doan scored two for ASU in the third period. Doan put the Sun Devils within a goal of tying the game at 4-4 with a little over a minute to play. With 15 seconds left, however, junior forward Ryan Sandelin put it away for the Mavericks. He scored an empty-net goal to put Minnesota State up 5-3.
“I’m proud of our guys for not throwing in the towel,” Powers said. “We had over a minute to tie it. We felt good.”
In the first and last periods, ASU kept pace with the Mavericks. It boasted 11 and seven shots in the first and third frames, respectively, compared to Minnesota State’s 12 shots through those minutes.
The Sun Devils also scored one goal off of five power-play chances in those periods, whereas the Mavericks went to the box just once throughout the entirety of the second period.
ASU played its best frame in the first period. Senior forward Jack Becker scored a power-play goal 20 seconds before intermission to give the Sun Devils their only lead of the night.
“We won the period,” Powers said. “They came out hard. Kraw Daddy [ASU junior goaltender Ben Kraws] was really good in net.”
The Sun Devils have three series’ left in the regular season, with two of them at Oceanside Ice Arena in Tempe. For ASU to have any chance at making the NCAA Tournament, it likely needs to win out against Alaska Fairbanks and Long Island University, while getting a bunch of help and luck elsewhere throughout the country.
TEMPE — The University of Alaska Fairbanks handed Arizona State Men’s Hockey its second sweep at Oceanside Ice Arena this season on Saturday night. The Nanooks defeated the Sun Devils 4-3 in a game filled with extracurricular activities.
ASU freshman defenseman Ty Murchison and senior forward Sean Dhooghe were both escorted to the penalty box in the middle of the second period, and would not return to the ice until the third period upon their participation in a gnarly brawl. It included the five-foot, three-inch Dhooghe taking down a Nanook to which the crowd erupted. Dhooghe served a 10-minute misconduct penalty along with freshman forward Riley Murphy from Alaska Fairbanks for his impeccable takedown.
“It’s all emotional,” senior forward Colin Theisen said. “They want to come in here and shove it up us, and win the game hard. That’s exactly what we’re going to do when we go there.”
Despite the loss and chippy play, the effort was there for the Sun Devils on Saturday night. They scored three goals, amassed 41 shots, and junior goaltender Ben Kraws made 27 saves.
“I thought the effort was good,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “I thought the effort was good for 60 minutes. The energy was good.”
Alaska Fairbanks never trailed in the game, though, scoring a goal in the first 51 seconds of the game.
The Nanooks played fast and aggressive, which proved to work against the Sun Devils. Despite their speed, ASU was able to keep up with Alaska Fairbanks.
“We played with pace,” Powers said.
Odd-man rushes plagued the Sun Devils on Saturday, and ASU allowed a couple of goals off those rushes.
“We don’t get it in [the net],” Powers said. “We have a [defenseman] fall, and they have another odd-man rush and put it in the back of the net.”
Freshman forward Matthew Kopperud and Theisen scored all three goals for ASU.
All three of those goals were scored off power-play chances. ASU went two for three on such opportunities.
After Kopperud’s first goal and Theisen’s sole goal, the Nanooks were able to quickly respond with a goal of their own, breaking the tie with each score. Alaska Fairbanks freshman forward Harrison Israels scored just over a minute after Theisen’s goal.
ASU made a few costly errors, which hurt the Sun Devils in the long run.
“It was literally just three mistakes that you can’t make,” Powers said. “[Alaska Fairbanks] capitalized on all of them, and again that’s just a microcosm of our year.”
ASU has two more series left to finish the season. It heads to Fairbanks for a rematch with the Nanooks in a few weeks and then ends the year at Oceanside Ice Arena against Long Island University.
On Friday, Arizona State Men’s Hockey tried to avenge its series sweep against Alaska Fairbanks from a few weeks ago. The Nanooks defeated the Sun Devils 3-2 in overtime, though, in Fairbanks on Saturday. Two unanswered goals cost the Sun Devils their early 2-1 lead.
Sophomore forward Filip Fornaa Svensson scored the final goal for the Nanooks with 3:44 left in three-on-three overtime. It was one of two goals Svensson scored to give Alaska Fairbanks the win. He amassed 13 shots and eight shots on goal.
His first goal came off a power-play opportunity with nearly 11 minutes left in the third period to even the score at two.
The Sun Devils put together a strong penalty kill throughout 60 minutes. They held the Nanooks to just two power-play goals despite the five chances they amassed. ASU couldn’t piece together one final penalty kill in the third period, however.
With about 12:30 left in the third period, sophomore defenseman Tim Lovell got put in the penalty box for hooking. Close to the 11-minute mark, it was Fornaa Svensson’s goal that tied the score.
It was a disappointing ending despite the first period looking really strong for the Sun Devils.
In the first 20 minutes of play, sophomore forward Matthew Kopperud found the back of the net twice. His first goal came off a Sun Devils’ power-play and went unassisted. He netted the second one in the final two minutes of the first period.
Senior forward Colin Theisen and freshman forward Josh Doan assisted Kopperud on his last goal.
It was the second time this season Kopperud scored two goals against Alaska Fairbanks – he scored twice in the series finale at Oceanside Ice Arena in Tempe back on Feb. 5.
The Nanooks won that game 4-3 behind their ability to quickly develop odd-man rushes against ASU defensemen. That was not the case in this game, however. The Nanooks did use their speed to their advantage though, which inevitably hindered the Sun Devils again.
Alaska Fairbanks quickly put the puck behind the net and raced to get it back. Their strategy worked to control possession within their offensive zone, but ASU junior goaltender Ben Kraws proved to be too much at times.
Kraws made a big save with 20 seconds left in the third period with the score tied at two. He did allow two power-play goals in the net but played a pivotal role in the Sun Devils’ stretches of success on Friday night. He amassed 29 saves with a .906% save percentage.
Overall, ASU played well on Friday night. They picked up 56 shots, with 30 being on target. They won 22 faceoffs with eight blocked shots and one power-play goal.
Penalties killed the Sun Devils, though. They amassed six penalties and gave up five power-play chances to the Nanooks, which led to two of their three goals. They also obtained 12 penalty minutes compared to the Nanooks’ eight.
ASU will play their final road match of the season against Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday night.
TEMPE – Arizona State Men’s Hockey fell to Denver 6-2 on Friday night. The Pioneers scored four goals in the final 20 minutes of the game to outlast the Sun Devils.
DU got several chances off counter-attack opportunities, which it capitalized on.
“That team is really skilled and really good,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “When you give up that many odd-man rushes from mismanaging the puck, that’s what is going to happen.”
Despite ASU’s puck struggles, it put up a great fight against one of the top teams in the country.
“Scoring chances were probably equal,” Powers said. “They were opportunistic. They finished. We didn’t.”
The Sun Devils amassed 33 shots compared to the Pioneers’ 29. Denver sunk six of those in the net, meanwhile, ASU couldn’t find the back of the net until the third period.
ASU also won 35 face-offs compared to Denver’s 45.
The Sun Devils struggled off power-play chances on Friday, going 0-4 on such chances.
“It hit a little bit of a lull,” Powers said. “It carried us there for a while… Guys got to get their swagger back.”
It’s the fourth-straight game without a power-play goal for the Sun Devils. It likely would have served ASU well to execute off those chances given the plethora of penalty time.
In the second period, ASU and DU combined for 38 minutes spent in the penalty box – an almost dumbfounding number given that the length of a period is only 20 minutes.
In total, there were nine power-play opportunities created, and the Pioneers notched two goals off those chances.
While ASU struggled to play a man-up against DU, it did manage to score a short-handed goal with 2:15 left to play in the third period. Senior forward Jordan Sandhu scored his first career short-handed goal and his first of the season.
Senior forward Colin Theisen scored the game’s third goal of the third period and the Sun Devils’ first of the night.
The final frame was action-filled. A 6-2 final started at 2-0 at the beginning of the third. The Pioneers scored four goals and the Sun Devils scored twice in the period.
“I thought that both teams were really good defensively in the first two periods,” Powers said. “It opened up there in the third.”
Powers said he wants his squad to manage the puck better and for junior goaltender Ben Kraws to make more saves.
“He was just ok,” Powers said of Kraws. “He made some big saves, but to beat Denver you’re probably going to have to make more saves than that.”
TEMPE – History often repeats itself, as is the case for the unique settings in which Arizona State Men’s Hockey and the University of Denver’s respective programs began.
ASU is seemingly following in the footsteps of what has become a college hockey giant.
In 1947, Ellison Ketchum, then-DU’s athletic director, shipped a US Naval drill hall used in World War II to campus.
“It was an old naval air hangar that was no longer being used,” former DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. “It was somewhere in Idaho. When DU finally decided to purchase it, it was dismantled in Idaho, put on a big flatbed railroad car, and shipped to Denver.”
Ketchum later named the former drill hall the DU Arena, where the Pioneers played hockey for nearly 50 years from 1949-1997.
Certainly, it was a unique setting to play Division I hockey in.
“The boards and glass didn’t follow a straight line from end to end,” Gwozdecky said. “It was like a snake. The glass, especially on one end, you could never fire a puck around the glass and have it come out without hitting a stanchion and bouncing right out to the middle of the ice surface.
“I guess that would’ve been a home-ice advantage.”
ASU is accustom to an untraditional feel at its home games. In 2015, the Sun Devils embarked on their first season playing exclusively in the NCAA’s Division I. During that time, they’ve played all their home games at Oceanside Ice Arena – a youth hockey venue that holds less than 1,000 people and was built in the 1970s.
“To be able to come here and play college hockey at Oceanside, I mean a lot of people look down on it, but I think it’s a huge privilege,” ASU senior forward Johnny Walker said.
In each case, it’s a place that has left unforgettable memories in the minds of players, coaches, and fans.
“We will always have a connection to this place,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “Personally, I will too.”
While these venues bring fond recollections, each offers specific features that are unique to ASU and DU programs’ history.
“Once [the DU arena] was built, they started adding things to the inside,” Gwozdecky said. “The rainbow was added to the north wall. I’m not exactly sure why other than just to make it look a little more attractive. There was no seating on the north end of the facility and that’s where the rainbow was. They [just] painted this large rainbow on that big north wall.”
Gwozdecky also mentioned that before he served as head coach, a scaffolding hung from the ceiling against the north wall where the DU pep band used to perform during games.
“That pep band bounced on that scaffolding just behind the netting overlooking the home team bench,” he said. “The pep band was unmerciful on the visiting goaltender.”
As for ASU, Oceanside brings its own interesting factors. The press box is essentially in the rafters of the arena, which hang no more than 30 feet high. It’s possible for media to hear every word said on the ice and bench –words that sometime trend among the less friendly in the English language.
Just like DU, ASU’s rink has its own painted wall to make it feel more like home. Across from the press box, a pitchfork lays in between the words ‘ASU’ and ‘Sun Devils.’
But for ASU, these peculiar features don’t deter the rink.
“You saw how excited we get when we score [at Oceanside],” Walker said. “It’s awesome to be able to build off that crowd. The rink is going to be great next year, but we are going to miss playing at Oceanside, for sure.”
ASU’s barn is also home to several pucks stuck inside the net that hangs from the ceiling.
It’s fascinating that the two western schools began their hockey programs in such a humble setting, but perhaps the most interesting connection is the path each team set to turn down when they were done playing there.
The Pioneers said farewell to their iconic arena in the late ‘1990s.
Despite their love for it, it had its drawbacks.
“We were losing ground because our building was not very nice,” Gwozdecky said. “It wasn’t very comfortable for the fans. Certainly, it wasn’t a very impressive facility for recruits. I remember the day when they finally shut the building down. We knew we were going to have to play off-campus for the better part of two seasons before the new facility was done.
“At the time, it was like, ‘Good riddance.’”
The next two seasons made them miss the former naval drill hall, however. Playing off-campus seemingly didn’t seem to work in DU’s advantage either.
“For two years, we were the wandering nomads,” Gwozdecky said. “It was definitely a challenge because we didn’t have a lot of people at our games and half the time people didn’t know when we were playing, so we came to miss having the old building, as strange as that sounds.”
ASU is much more fortunate. The Sun Devils’ new $115 million arena is scheduled to open in December of 2022.
While DU obtained higher levels of success in its first barn – it won five national championships in the drill hall – ASU may have an upper hand moving forward.
“[It’s] a game-changer for the program,” Powers said.
Despite those five rings playing at DU Arena, the athletic department couldn’t find the funds until 1999 to build Magness Arena.
“Dan Richie became the chancellor [at DU] and was able to raise significant amounts of, millions and millions, of dollars, much of which he gave on his own,” Gwozdecky said. “His financial commitment to the university, along with many of his friends and former business partners, really was the thing that completely turned campus around.”
DU had relative success when it was homeless, making the NCAA Tournament twice. But the Pioneers were able rekindle their prior spark once moving into Magness – the program has won three national titles, five Frozen Fours and 15 tournaments since.
In contrast to DU’s attitude towards its old arena, ASU is rather fond of its rink. The Sun Devils have cherished their time at Oceanside.
“I know for us, we have some unfinished business here,” junior defenseman Jacob Semik said before the season. “We didn’t get to play in this barn last year at all, and my freshman year we got to and we were really successful, so we are looking forward to it. One last go-out.”
ASU’s grateful and tenacious spirit has treated it well in Oceanside. This season, the Sun Devils are 6-4 at home, and earned a win over No. 20 ranked Bemidji State last Friday. As ASU’s program grows up, moves out and seeks to find success similar to the Pioneers’ in a new place, Powers doesn’t want them to forget that part of their identity.
“[Oceanside] has been great to us,” Powers said. “We’ve been good to it.”
TEMPE – Arizona State Men’s Hockey struggled offensively en route to a 4-3 loss to Bemidji State on Wednesday night.
ASU had a tough time keeping pace with the Beavers’ aggressiveness in the early going. The Sun Devils trailed 3-1 after the first period.
“You come out with that poor of a start against a really good team like that, they’re going to make you pay,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “We just dug ourselves a hole that we couldn’t quite climb out of.”
The Sun Devils’ biggest issue in the first frame spurred from offensive woes. They amassed just 12 shots in the first 20 minutes of the game.
“We can’t pick and choose when we want to play hard,” Powers said. “When you want to compete and battle. If we do that we will be a .500 hockey team.”
After ASU’s egregious start to the game, it displayed a more even showing during the final two periods.
“We have resilience and we’ve come back from down quite a bit this year and won,” Powers said.
After shooting the puck at Bemidji State freshman goaltender Mattias Sholl just 12 times, the Sun Devils kept pace with the Beavers offensively the rest of the way. They amassed 48 shots in the second and third periods and added two more goals to their total.
“I think when we get bodies in front of the net and pucks there, I think we can score a lot more goals,” senior forward Chris Grando said.
Defensively, ASU played phenomenally for the full 60 minutes. The Sun Devils amassed 29 saves and 12 blocks. They only allowed 20 shots in the last two frames after giving up 18 in the first.
ASU junior goaltender Ben Kraws pieced together another great start despite the loss. With three minutes left in the second period, Kraws made perhaps the play of the night. Senior forward Owen Silinger skated across the rink to take a wide-open save, but Kraws deflected the puck. After the deflection, the puck found Silinger’s stick again and, he could’ve scored a goal had it not been for Kraws’ quickness to dive on the puck.
“Ben played unbelievably,” senior defenseman Jacob Wilson said. “He’s been steady and solid for us back there. We owe a lot to him.”
ASU also struggled on power-play chances on Wednesday, scoring zero goals on four opportunities. With 14:31 left in the second period, the Sun Devils played with two extra men against the Beavers, but couldn’t capitalize on the advantage. During its power plays, ASU took just one shot during the entire game.
Powers wants to start much more aggressively against Bemidji State on Friday.
“We have got to come out here and be as desperate as we’ve ever been on Friday,” Powers said.
The Sun Devils certainly have bought into that notion, and seem prepared to showcase that mindset on Friday.
“We were 6-6 going into tonight,” Grando said. “We have got to be desperate every single time we touch the ice.”
TEMPE — On Oct. 9, 2015, Arizona State Men’s Hockey walked into its first Division I game and got a rude awakening. It lost 3-2 to Alaska Anchorage, allowed 40 shots and finished with only 23 shots of their own.
On Friday night in Tempe, about six years after that historic game, the Sun Devils might have been reminded of that welcome party to the D1 ranks by a team who is now going through the same thing.
In the Sun Devils’ 5-2 win over the newly D1 University of St. Thomas, ASU played with the same level of physicality that Alaska Anchorage used to win six years ago. The Sun Devils’ scored four goals in the third period to put the Tommies away.
“We were playing the way we want to play,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said.
While the score didn’t showcase the Sun Devils’ aggressiveness and physicality until late in the game, ASU certainly may have been reminded of what occurred in 2015 throughout the night.
For most of the first two periods, the Tommies held the Sun Devils to a tight game as the score was tied after the first and second intermissions. After a scoreless first period, ASU sophomore forward Matthew Kopperud got the ball rolling for the Sun Devils in the second period with a power play goal. Freshman forward Josh Doan assisted Kopperud for his ninth score of the season.
However, St. Thomas senior forward Grant Loven tied the game 30 seconds later with a goal of his own.
After the second period ended, the Sun Devils had amassed 30 shots compared to the Tommies’ 11. Despite the attack on the net, the Sun Devils only found the back of it once in the first 40 minutes.
“[St. Thomas senior goaltender Peter Thome’s] a good goalie,” Powers said. “I mean he played at North Dakota and he’s a really good goalie. He played great tonight, and we were just letting him see everything. When you let a kid like that see shots he’s going to stop them.”
ASU would go on to score four goals in the final period, however. Sophomore forward Benji Eckerle scored his first goal of the season and the Sun Devils’ second goal of the night with 17:44 left in the third frame.
“We got in [Thome’s] eyes and got some bodies in the net and were able to take a lead,” Powers said.
Sophomore defenseman Tim Lovell jumpstarted the Sun Devils’ string of three unanswered goals thereafter. After allowing the Tommies to tie the game at two with 12:17 left in the game, Lovell lit one up from the point for his third goal of the season.
“The play was made by [ASU senior forward] Johnny Walker, so it was an unbelievable look by him,” Lovell said. “It was good to capitalize on it.”
Following his goal, senior defenseman Tim Theocharidis put the puck in the back of the net and forward Johnny Walker scored an empty-net goal from the Sun Devils’ defensive half of the ice to effectively seal the game away.
It felt as though ASU was simply just bigger and better on Friday night.
“We were really good on the forecheck tonight,” Powers said. “I thought defensively our guys didn’t give them anything. We closed gaps. We closed time and space. They didn’t have much offensive zone time at all.”
ASU finished with 50 shots – 10 more than Alaska Anchorage in ASU’s first Division I game, and the Sun Devils’ hockey journey seemingly came full circle.
Arizona State Men’s Hockey and Quinnipiac last played each other nearly two years ago on Nov. 19, 2019 – just eight months removed from the Sun Devils’ first NCAA tournament appearance that resulted in a 2-1 loss to the Bobcats.
In that series, the Sun Devils won both games at Oceanside Ice Arena – a seemingly unprecedented advantage thats weight has carried over into 2021-22.
ASU head coach Greg Powers mentioned that the series one of the program’s best performances in school history.
“Last time we had them, they were here [at Oceanside] and we swept them,” Powers said. “They were a top ten team and we played maybe the best series we’ve played.”
Now, the Sun Devils travel to Hamden, CT this weekend to play the No. 5 ranked Bobcats for their toughest challenge so far in the still-early 2021-22 season.
Powers noted it’s not a rivalry between the two schools, but the way things ended between these two teams back in 2019 suggests that Quinnipiac might very well want vengeance. ASU is 5-1 playing in Tempe this year, and is 1-3 start on the road thus far.
“Home ice is always an advantage,” Powers said. “It’s a unique building that we are use to practicing in and playing in, and for teams that come in and just get a skate in here, it’s tough.”
Powers said that ASU has the confidence needed to prove themselves to the country this weekend.
“The programs are essentially the same,” Powers said. “The style of play is the same on both sides from both sides. Like I said, it’s just going to be a matter of ‘Will we win?’ on Friday night.”
The Sun Devils have focused a lot on their game plan ahead of the Quinnipiac series.
“We’ve just been working hard out there,” senior forward Colin Theisen said. “Sticking with what we do and I think that our process in practice means a lot to the game, and that’s what we’ve been sticking with.”
Theisen scored a hat trick for the Sun Devils in their last game against the St. Thomas Tommies and hopes to continue playing his style of hockey against the Bobcats.
“Stick to the process,” Theisen said. “I’m not trying to do anything special out there. Stick with how we play and our lines have been clicking right now, so we are just going to keep going.”
Part of the success from all of the Sun Devils’ lines is their physicality and aggressiveness, which they hope can continue this weekend.
“I think we just need to be all over them,” Theisen said. “Hard and physical. [Quinnipiac] is a hard-nosed team, so I think we just got to match that.”
ASU has started slow in series openers this year. It lost 8-3 against Denver and Colgate earlier this season.
Theisen and the Sun Devils hope to implement a new game plan to help mitigate the recurring issue.
“I think our biggest issue in the past has been our starts,” Theisen said. “If we just start the first five and focus on five minutes, I think we will be fine.”
The Sun Devils will also need to play well on their power play opportunities – ASU excelled on the man advantage early in the year but struggled with it in its last series. ASU is second in the nation in power play goals scored, but failed to score once against St. Thomas while playing a man up. ASU will look to get the power play back to its original dominance during chances this weekend.
“The biggest thing on the road is creating your own momentum, so working hard and moving your feet and drawing those penalties and getting the power play out there and capitalizing will be huge for us,” Theisen said.
TEMPE, AZ — Arizona State Men’s Hockey welcomed the University of New Hampshire to Oceanside Ice Arena on Friday night, and despite the freezing cold temperatures inside Oceanside Ice Arena, ASU amassed a streak as hot as the Arizona summer in the third period en route to a 5-1 victory over the Wildcats.
“Obviously, I loved how we came out and played in the third,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “We played to our potential, finally.”
The Sun Devils scored four of their five goals in the final 20 minutes of the contest while all five were unanswered goals. Senior forward Demetrios Koumontzis struck a chord that seemingly resonated with the rest of the team after putting the puck past New Hampshire’s sophomore goaltender Jeremy Forman with 15:12 left in the third period.
“Once you get one it just piles on,” Koumontzis said. “Yeah, it definitely changed the momentum on the bench, and everyone stuck with it and just kept pulling.”
After Koumontzis’ goal, a string followed. In three minutes, ASU scored three goals.
Freshmen forward Jackson Niedermayer scored his second goal of the game with 13:42 to play in the third, followed by senior captain forward Johnny Walker’s first goal of the season with 12:41 left in the game.
Niedermayer has strung together a pair of great performances. Last weekend, he scored his first collegiate goal against the University of Denver before finding the net twice against New Hampshire.
“If you play with confidence you’re going to be a confident player,” Niedermayer said. “Getting in there [in the] first game against Denver, you kinda get thrown right into the fire, and I enjoyed it.”
Sophomore goaltender Cole Brady can attest to being thrown into the fire. Against Denver, he allowed eight goals in his first start of the season last weekend but has bounced back quickly in his last two games. Against New Hampshire on Friday night, Brady only allowed one goal with 34 saves.
ASU’s biggest improvement, however, came in its five-on-five play, particularly in the third period.
“I think we were really good on the forecheck, especially in the third period,” Powers said. “We forced some turnovers and capitalized. We just played our brand of hockey in the third period.”
For the first time this season, all of ASU’s goals came at even strength and it didn’t score on a power-play opportunity. The team finally played to the level of physicality that Powers believed they could, while the Sun Devils also possessed the puck really well.
“[New Hampshire] did a lot of the hard work down low,” Koumontzis said. “I thought we did a really good job cycling and keeping it down low, and giving them hard pressure.”
ASU shot the puck 35 times on Friday night – the most it has taken this season.
The Sun Devils started the game aggressively and never looked back. They posted 13 shots in the first eight minutes. However, their urgency to start didn’t correlate with the scoreboard early, as New Hampshire freshman forward Robert Cronin scored an early go-ahead goal to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.
Prior to the season, Powers noted that the Sun Devils were attempting to find their identity from the 2019 season again. After Cronin’s goal, ASU exceeded those recover and rally expectations they set during the program’s initial liftoff, and it’s a trait that could bode well for success the rest of the early 2021-22 season.
Arizona State Men’s Hockey is preparing for a bounce-back year in its final season playing at Oceanside Ice Arena. It will be a bittersweet ending to the place where the program grew up.
“We will miss [Oceanside],” head coach Greg Powers said. “It’s been our home. It’s what we know. We’ve been able to build a program out of this place.”
The Sun Devils are anticipating a ride similar to what some on ASU’s roster just experienced in their own homes: leaving a place they know by heart for a place large and unfamiliar in college. Like a senior who finally sucked up enough courage to ask their freshmen crush on a date or to prom, the Sun Devils hope to finally conquer the task of bringing home their first ever National Championship in 2022.
“[We want to] make a big splash,” freshman forward Josh Doan said.
Junior defensemen Jacob Semik is all hands on deck when it comes to embracing ASU’s last season at Oceanside, all while getting the big job done.
“It’s national championship or bust,” Semik said. “There’s unfinished business [at Oceanside].”
Semik’s huge goal could become a reality at the hands of Powers’ detail and preparation at practice.
“You do [the work] in practice,” Powers said. “The pace, and the habits, and the detail. You have to be demanding as a coach.”
Powers’ concentrated efforts toward precision and hard work have seemingly paid off early in the season too.
“We have not had a bad practice or poor practice yet, or bad pace,” Powers said.
Powers’ first goal is for the Sun Devils to get a good start to the season, and the early returns in practice seemingly have that looking likely for ASU.
“We’ve really only had, in the history of our program, one good start and it was the year we made the tournament, Powers said.
“The schedule is tough. The teams we’re playing are tough, but again, we’re confident against anyone in this building.”
The Sun Devils hope to embrace that mentality and have a start similar to 2018-19 to this year against UMass Lowell. Opening the season at Oceanside against a ranked opponent will be far from easy, but Powers and the Sun Devils are sticking to familiar term ahead of the season.
“We’re focused on one game at a time,” Powers said.
TEMPE, Ariz. — Feb. 15th, 2020.
That was the last time ASU Men’s Hockey played a real, meaningful game at Oceanside Ice Arena until Saturday. The Sun Devils hadn’t played a game that counted in the standings in Tempe in one year, seven months and 17 days.
In their return to Oceanside, the Sun Devils did not disappoint. ASU filled the arena – showcased by a crowded student section – and came up with a 5-3 victory over UMass Lowell.
“It’s awesome to be able to build [momentum] off that crowd,” senior captain forward Johnny Walker said. “We’re going to miss the emotions at Oceanside.”
The team capitalized on the abundance of penalties UMass Lowell amassed on the night. The River Hawks totaled eight penalties and the Sun Devils scored four times off of six power-play opportunities.
“The power play was looking good,” sophomore forward Matthew Kopperud said.
Kopperud scored two goals off power plays on Saturday. His first goal came nearly a minute and a half after the River Hawks put the puck past the Sun Devils’ junior goalkeeper Ben Kraws for their first goal. After Kopperrud’s early first-period goal, he evened the score again late in the second period at 3-3.
Graduate forward Jack Becker and sophomore defenseman Tim Lovell scored the other power-play goals for the Sun Devils in the third period.
Heading into the third frame, the Sun Devils and River Hawks were tied at three – a perhaps expected development as the two teams went back and forth all night.
The game escalated with about six minutes left in the third period, however. UMass Lowell senior forward Lucas Condotta got penalized for a tripping call and junior forward Andre Lee was ejected from the match upon the fight that broke out after his teammate’s tripping call.
The River Hawks’ late penalties helped the Sun Devils score two unanswered goals late in the game.
“Five-on-five I thought [the River Hawks] were the better team, and the equalizers were really good power play and goaltending,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “We had both those tonight.”
Earlier in the week, Powers noted that the Sun Devils had gotten back to playing physically and aggressively.
Their identity seemingly got past them in the first period. ASU allowed two goals and 13 shots on goal in the first 20 minutes of the game. UMass Lowell scored one of those goals in the first 58 seconds to quickly go up 1-0.
The Sun Devils were quick to be beaten off the puck and several passes were intercepted in the first period.
“They are physical, hard, heavy on sticks,” Powers said.
After the first period, Powers said he told his team to reset, and it seemed to work. Following the first period, where ASU trailed 2-1, freshman forward Jack Jensen lit the lamp with ten minutes to go in the second period to tie the contest at two. Additionally, ASU became more physical on the walls and conscious about its passes in the frame as well.
Above all, the Sun Devils looked like they were playing with a different energy in the second and third periods.
Prior to the game, Powers said he told his guys to enjoy the season ahead of them upon last season’s difficulties and their farewell to Oceanside.
“Just have fun,” Powers recalled postgame. “We want to embrace the last 20 games we have in this building.”
Walker added: “I think that all the boys wanted redemption not being able to play here.”
The new Godzilla vs. King Kong movie is set to be released on March 31st. The upcoming release date has led fans of the series to engage in heated debates as to whether Godzilla or Kong will come out on top. For ASU 197-pound wrestler Kordell Norfleet the answer is a no-brainer. “Kong bows to no one,” claimed the decorated redshirt junior. Similar to King Kong, Norfleet has not bowed to anyone this season.
Norfleet holds a perfect record in regular season matches and has not lost a conference bout in over three years. The Sun Devil is in his fourth year at ASU but ignores fans’ and coaches’ claims of him being a senior.
“I don’t know who started calling me a senior because last year I was a redshirt sophomore,” said Norfleet. “I don’t know how I just jumped, but I got to talk to somebody.”
Despite there being four starting seniors on the roster, Norfleet has taken over a serious leadership position for the Sun Devils. He claims that the “many lessons [I’ve] learned,” from Myles Martin and Zahid Valencia have helped him lead this team to an overwhelmingly successful season.
“If there is one thing [Zahid] always did, it was he led by example,” said Norfleet. “He would call you out. He didn’t really allow for you to give anything less than all you had. He pushed [ourselves] in ways a lot of people aren’t willing to do.”
Norfleet has naturally taken over Zahid’s leadership role this season.
“There is a lot of unspoken things in which people on the team look to me. You know it’s kind of like we are going to do what Kordell says,” added the 197-pound wrestler.
Norfleet’s authoritative figure has proved to be incredibly helpful for the young squad. He mentioned that the team has been tediously training since the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020. Norfleet certainly made a difference during these offseason workouts simply from his work ethic.
“I was afforded the luxury of being around Zahid. You see he got it done at the highest level in college multiple times,” said Norfleet. “You pick up the good habits. You see what he does and see how he trains, and it rubs off on you.”
His work ethic and leadership have led to high expectations from the junior.
“I expect us to shock a lot of people. I think we just got ranked like nine. You know that’s still not a trophy,” said Norfleet.
This has helped the Sun Devils to an undefeated regular season with even more achievements to come. In two weeks, the team will go up to Corvallis, Oregon for the PAC-12 Championships. Norfleet is not worried about the competition and expects his team to take home another conference championship. After that, Norfleet looks to achieve his most desired goal: a national championship.
“It’s what every college wrestler wakes up and does this for. I want that national title,” said Norfleet. “Regular-season success doesn’t equate to a national title.”
Hopefully, for Kordell, he can have his hand raised in the final bout of the season, and then eleven days later see King Kong do the same to Godzilla.
ASU looks to bounce back from its first loss of the season with vengeance over the dominant Big Ten.
On Dec. 21, the Sun Devils fell to the No. 2 Penn State Nittany Lions 29-10. On Monday, they face the No. 3 Michigan Wolverines, which will be the second consecutive match against the best conference in the nation for ASU.
“Everyone sees this as a chance to bounce back and beat a top team to get us back on track for what we want to do in March,” freshman heavyweight Cohlton Schultz said.
Each match will be tough, and each raised hand for the Sun Devils will be well-earned against the Wolverines.
“Which Arizona State team is going to show up?” coach Zeke Jones said. “The one that really wrestles tough or the one when it gets tough, are we willing to step up and fight for scores? We learned the best teams are going to fight you back and you have to be ready to embrace that fight.”
The Wolverines have five wrestlers in the top 10 in their respective weight classes: 133-pound Dylan Ragusin, 141-pound Stevan Micic, 174-pound Logan Massa, 184-pound Myles Amine, and heavyweight Mason Parris.
125-pound junior Brandon Courtney defeated Michigan’s Jack Medley back in 2017, 11-6. More recently, each wrestled the national champion at 125 pounds, Spencer Lee. Courtney lost 7-0 in the national championship, and Medley lost 8-1 and by tech fall back in 2020.
The 133-pound bout might be the most closely contested match of the day. #7 Michael McGee is 4-4 and #9 Dylan Ragusin is 3-3 against common opponents. Both fell to Penn State’s Roman Bravo-Young by decision in 2021. McGee did beat OU’s Anthony Madrigal by major decision, while Ragusin lost 4-3.
Freshman Jesse Vasquez is facing the toughest stretch of his collegiate career. Against Penn State, he wrestled #1 Nick Lee and lost 14-3. Tomorrow, he wrestles the #3 wrestler in the nation at 141 pounds.
If ASU wants a shot to win this match, the 149-pound, 157-pound, and 165-pound weight classes are must-wins. #13 Kyle Parco wrestles #50 Cole Mattin, and #4 Jacori Teemer wrestles #11 Will Lewan. #9 Anthony Valencia wrestles #12 Cameron Amine. Valencia is 2-2 and Amine is 1-3 against common opponents.
174 and 184-pound weight classes will be tough matchups for the Sun Devils, as the Wolverines have #7 Logan Massa wrestling at 174 pounds and #1 Myles Amine at 184 pounds.
Schultz is set to wrestle #2 Mason Parris.
“Coming into this dual, I have nothing but excitement,” Schultz said. “I’m looking forward to taking down a dude with this much skill. I respect Mason a whole lot for his accomplishments, but I know if I wrestle my best, I can beat him.”
Most analysts have Michigan favored to win the match, but Jones has used that as motivation for his squad.
“I believe Michigan is the favorite if you look at it on paper,” Jones said. “That is what we relish — being the underdog and being the team that can knock off a team ahead of us. All the rankings are just numbers. On paper, we are the underdog but our guys believe they can win.”
It certainly won’t be easy, but if Jones’ squad can win a few bouts at the beginning and end of the match, another Big Ten upset could bounce in ASU’s favor.
TEMPE – Arizona State Wrestling won its final match of the regular season against Lehigh in senior 165-pound Anthony Valencia’s regular season last dual at Desert Financial Arena on Saturday.
Both the Sun Devils and ASU head coach Zeke Jones snapped losing streaks against the Mountain Hawks. Jones had not seen a victory over Lehigh since 2007.
“I didn’t know it was that long,” Jones said. “Getting our hand raised against a good Pennsylvania team is not anything easy doing. I was glad our guys were able to do it.”
Lehigh surely gave ASU a run for its money, losing by merely a major decision 21-17.
For Valencia, his Senior Night didn’t go as planned, as he lost while wrestling through injury.
“He is just working his way back from an injury and he put himself out there when he is not 100 percent,” Jones said. “We have to get him healthy.”
Although things didn’t go Valencia’s way, Jones was glad to see one of the “First Believers” end his regular season career at home.
“We are going to miss that 2015 recruiting class,” Jones said. “[Anthony] was a part that launched the program and put it into the place it is in today and I will forever be grateful.”
The Sun Devils won four of the first five bouts. Junior 125-pound Brandon Courtney and junior 133-pound Michael McGee each won by a major decision. Courtney scored two takedowns, one escape, four near-fall points and earned a riding-time bonus. McGee amassed five total takedowns and added an escape point and riding time to win 12-4 over Lehigh senior Satoshi Abe.
Perhaps the most exciting bout of the evening came at 157 pounds. In a top-10 matchup, sophomore Jacori Teemer came away with another win. The third period was closely contested between Teemer and his opponent, senior Josh Humphreys. Teemer scored six points in the final two minutes off a takedown and a near fall, while Humphreys scored four points off two escapes and a takedown. Teemer remained undefeated this season with the victory over Humphreys.
“I knew what I had to do to win and happy I got the job done against a high-ranked opponent,” Teemer said. “It’s [the] postseason now. I knew I needed this level of competition.”
Junior 197-pound Kordell Norfleet and freshman heavyweight Cohlton Schultz solidified ASU’s victory over Lehigh.
Norfleet earned five takedowns in a 12-4 major decision victory over Lehigh sophomore JT Davis.
Schultz, like Teemer, also competed in a top-10 matchup, and it went to triple overtime. After being tied 1-1 with No. 7-ranked Lehigh sophomore Jordan Wood in regulation, Wood and Schultz both earned an escape point in overtime before Schultz scored a takedown to win 4-2.
ASU wrestles one final time at home on March 6 in the Pac-12 Conference Championships.
The absence of freshman 141-pound Jesse Vasquez and junior 197-pound Kordell Norfleet hindered Arizona State in its match against the Pittsburgh Panthers on Friday night. ASU fell to Pitt 24-19.
After winning five of the first six bouts, ASU couldn’t hold on to its lead, losing three straight matches.
Momentum quickly shifted for the Panthers after #6 senior 165-pound Anthony Valencia defeated #13 Jake Wentzel in a hotly contested dual. After several controversial stalling calls, often the lack thereof, and missed takedown points awarded to Wentzel, Pittsburgh wanted to redeem its teammate.
“We were aggressive and really going for the kill tonight,” Pitt coach Keith Gavin said.
The Sun Devils struggled in the 174-pound through the 197-pound bouts. Pitt’s James Lledo pinned freshman 174-pound Zane Coleman in 2:31. Freshman 184-pound Josh Nummer lost by tech fall to Gregg Harvey. He got plenty of takedowns against Nummer in the first two periods to lead 14-4 through two frames. After a series of stalling calls, the referees disqualified Nummer with 16 seconds left in the match which led way to Harvey’s 19-6 win.
At 197-pounds, Kordell Norfleet was missing from the match against #9 Nino Bonaccorsi. Instead, freshman 197-pound Jake Ortiz filled in and fell to Bonaccorsi via pin 2:26 into the bout.
The pin secured victory for the Panthers, as they led by eight points with one bout left. (The most team points that can be scored in a single bout are six points via pin or tech fall).
Norfleet was perhaps the biggest absence for the Sun Devils, but Jesse Vasquez also missed the mat, which inevitably cost ASU team points and the match.
Freshman 141-pound Julian Chlebove wrestled in place of Vasquez. He wrestled #22 Cole Matthews, who defeated #4 Stevan Micic and earned ACC Wrestler of the Week accolades last week. Micic beat Chlebove by a decision on January 3, so a tight contest was highly anticipated. Despite the anticipation, Matthews pinned Chlebove in 1:20 after an unlucky turn of events played out for ASU’s 141-pounder.
Despite the absences and struggles late in the match, there were some things that went right for the Sun Devils.
Junior 125-pound Brandon Courtney blew past Gage Curry with ease. His speed and offensive tendencies were too much for Curry. Courtney won 10-4 on a decision victory. He amassed four takedowns in this bout.
Junior 133-pound Michael McGee also looked solid. He wrestled #7 Micky Phillippi, and narrowly won. A reversal and riding time made the difference for McGee to creep past Phillippi 5-3.
Freshman 141-pound Kyle Parco dominated Dan Mancini. After a speedy takedown, Parco quickly got four back points at the end of the first period. He got another takedown in the final seconds of the second period to go up 11-1. Parco won the match 16-2 by major decision.
For ASU, the lower weight classes continued to stay dominant, but the 174-pound and 184-pound weight classes remain a problem for the Sun Devils. These two weight classes have put ASU in some tough situations a few times this season, and again tonight.
ASU hopes to return Vasquez and Norfleet on Sunday in its match against Princeton to potentially combat struggles in those two weight classes.
The Sun Devils continued to dominate on the mat against Pac-12 opponents today. ASU hasn’t lost in Pac-12 play since February 2, 2019, just over three years ago.
The Sun Devils won their fourth consecutive match this season in a 25-15 victory over Stanford.
“The guys are just competing,” coach Zeke Jones said. “They love to compete.”
The most exciting match was between reigning NCAA champion Shane Griffith and senior 165-pound Anthony Valencia. In the third period, Griffith led 5-0, but Valencia almost completed the ultimate comeback. He got a takedown, and quickly put Griffith on his back for a total of six points. After a stalemate call late in the bout, Griffith got a takedown to close it out. Valencia lost 7-6.
“I would’ve love to see Anthony win that bout on the comeback,” Jones said.
Freshman 149-pound Kyle Parco and junior 133-pound Michael McGee highlighted the match with a major decision and tech fall victories, respectively.
For McGee, it was his 100th career win.
“My 100th win. I feel like I’m getting old,” McGee said.
He defeated No. 29 Jackson DiSario, and made it look easy. He got two takedowns in the first period and had 10 total back points before defeating DiSario.
“McGee getting us started off was awesome,” Jones said.
Parco beat No. 12 Jaden Abas in a controversial match. The refs made several questionable calls in this bout. Regardless, Parco persevered and finished with an 11-3 win over the All-American.
“149 was a huge match,” Jones said. “Two All-Americans wrestling each other. I don’t know if people really knew that. So anytime you have guys, two All-Americans, wrestling each other, and for Kyle to dominate was huge.”
Junior 197-pound Kordell Norfleet and freshman 285-pound Cohlton Schultz solidified the Sun Devils win over Stanford.
Norfleet won a close bout against Nick Stemmet, which gave the Sun Devils a six-point cushion heading into Cohlton’s match against Peter Ming.
Schultz dominated his opponent. He amassed four takedowns and one escape with 12 total points in the bout.
Sophomore 157-pound Jacori Teemer also had a convincing win against Charlie Darracott. He won 9-3 with three takedowns and a little dance celebration at the end of his bout.
“I go out there, and I just have fun,” Teemer said. “I was literally taunting him to take my leg.”
ASU wrestles against Little Rock in Arkansas on Sunday and then will be back at Desert Financial Arena next weekend to wrestle Mizzou.
After its first dual win of the new season, Arizona State looks to build on its dominance in the early stages of the 2021-22 year at the Cowboy Open on Nov. 27.
The Sun Devils defeated the Oklahoma Sooners 22-12 last week following its commanding performance at the Mountaineer Open to start the season. They won eight individual championships, 11 major decisions and amassed seven pins in that tournament.
“We focus on being very offensive,” coach Zeke Jones said.
Clearly, that has been the case in ASU’s first two competitions of the season. The Sun Devils already have 13 major decision victories to start the season, and they have no intention of stopping anytime soon.
ASU has proven to be among one of the best wrestling teams in the nation thus far but isn’t satisfied with their results.
“I don’t even think I have a good season going so far,” freshman 141-pound Jesse Vasquez said. In true coach Jones fashion, the Sun Devils are hungry for more success.
Their offensive fortunes will clash with Utah Valley and Wyoming. The Wolverines amassed eight pins through six matches.
The PAC-12 Wrestler of the Week junior 133-pound Michael McGee will wrestle against tough competition from each school. Sophomore 133-pound Job Greenwood from Wyoming is ranked 29th in the nation with two pins, a tech fall, and a major decision victory thus far. Meanwhile, the Wolverines’ 133-pound Haiden Drury is ranked 39th in the nation with three major decision victories.
McGee is coming off a big win against the No. 10 wrestler in the nation, Anthony Madrigal. Certainly, he’s looking to improve upon last week’s success at the Cowboy Open on Saturday.
#7 Cohlton Schultz will have to look out for Utah Valley’s 285-pound Jayden Woodruff who already has four pins and eight wins to start the season. His quickest pin came in 51 seconds against Jacob Smith from Cal Baptist.
“Cohlton is really steady,” coach Jones said. “He’s a rock-solid, high character guy.”
Coach Zeke Jones and the Sun Devils wrestling squad will be back in action on Nov. 14 in Boone, N.C., for the Mountaineer Open.
ASU will wrestle for the first time since earning their first team trophy since 1995 at the NCAA Championships last March. Last season, the Sun Devils, led by Brandon Courtney’s stellar performance and Anthony Valencia’s grit, placed fourth at the D1 national championships.
Courtney amassed the most team points off three decision victories, one major decision, a first tie-breaker win, and becoming the runner up at 125 pounds.
In the last two weeks of the season, Courtney lost one match. It came in the national championship round to Spencer Lee in the NCAA 125 pounds finals.
Courtney is looking to avenge that loss this season and represent his home state proudly.
Anthony Valencia is coming back after pouring his heart and soul into the mat at the championships. In Valencia’s sixth year, he won his fourth Pac-12 championship and placed eighth in the NCAA Championships. Valencia got injured during the tournament, but continued wrestling to help ASU win a team trophy.
Valencia is returning with that same spirit this season.
“I want to get my individual title,” Valencia said. “That’s why I’m here.”
His need to constantly get better complements Jones’ attitude to adapt and always learn more.
“If you’re not learning you’re dying,” Jones said.
The Sun Devils’ newest members are beginning to learn this mindset.
Richard Figueroa — the number one pound-for-pound recruit in the nation — and Cael Valencia are some of the freshmen who have stood out during preseason practices.
ASU will wrestle against no. 23 Illinois, no. 38 Air Force, no. 44 Appalachian State, no. 48 Indiana, no. 58 Duke, no. 61 Kent State and no. 64 Gardner-Webb.
Brandon Courtney will wrestle against no. 20 Codi Russel, no. 21 Jake Ferri, no. 28 Justin Cardani, and no. 30 Jacob Moran.
The new transfer from Fresno State, Kyle Parco, will wrestle at 149 pounds against no. 4 Dylan Duncan, no. 9 Jonathan Milner, and no. 30 Graham Rooks.
Anthony Valencia will wrestle no. 23 Danny Braunagel and no. 26 Will Formato. Cohlton Schultz will wrestle no. 25 Luke Huffman.
ASU will have five Pac-12 champions back on the mat this year. This includes 2019 Senior Nationals champion and 2020 Olympic Team Trials runner-up Cohlton Schultz.
Arizona State took down the No. 17 Oklahoma Sooners 22-12 behind a dominant performance in the neutral position for its first dual victory of the season. ASU amassed 18 total takedowns throughout the match.
“We focus on being very offensive,” coach Jones said. “We spend some time working on defense, but we really need to score points.”
Scoring points and getting takedowns helped the Sun Devils earn several decisions and major decisions to lament themselves as one of the best wrestling teams in the nation.
Two Sun Devils scored four takedowns in their matches- Jesse Vasquez and Jacori Teemer. ASU won its first six bouts to take an early 19-0 lead over Oklahoma, highlighted by major decision victories by junior 133-pound Michael McGee and freshman 141-pound Jesse Vasquez.
“It’s an electric, eccentric feeling,” Vasquez said. “This is my first official home dual as an ASU Sun Devil, and man, I haven’t felt a crowd like that except for at my own state tournament.”
Vasquez took down Jacob Butler four times and scored two back points and a reversal in his debut at Desert Financial Arena. 125-pound Brandon Courtney defeated #20, Joey Prata, behind a couple of takedowns. 133-pound Michael McGee earned the Sun Devils’ first major decision victory of the night against #10 Anthony Madrigal. He stayed lower than his opponent for most of the match which helped him amass three takedowns, three escapes, and one reversal.
After Vasquez’s bout, sophomore 157-pound Jacori Teemer boasted ASU’s third decision victory for Teemer’s first win over #18 Justin Thomas.
“Man, that felt good,” Teemer said. “Two years ago he beat me on the backside of a tournament. My mind wasn’t right. I lost 11 pounds the night before and my body wasn’t feeling good. Last year, he beat me at OU. I was actually winning the whole match until he pulled my knee out.”
After the Teemer’s bout, tensions escalated between the two teams after Teemer’s baby-cradle celebration.
“I think he didn’t like my celebration,” Teemer said. After Teemer celebrated, OU coaches and wrestlers rushed onto the mat in frustration over Jacori’s dance.
He mentioned that it was an act of spite from the last time the two wrestled. According to Teemer, Thomas pointed to his wrist to celebrate his victory over Teemer who suffered an injury in that match.
After winning six straight bouts, the Sun Devils dropped the next three, allowing Oklahoma to come within seven points of ASU.
Freshman 174-pound Zane Coleman lost by major decision to Anthony Mantanona, followed by Darrien Roberts’ pin to defeat freshman 174-pound Josh Nummer.
Junior 197-pound Kordell Norfleet lost the final bout for the Sun Devils in a closely fought match. In the final 30 seconds, #6 Jake Woodley took down Norfleet to win by a decision 5-3.
“The Oklahoma kid out fought Kordell,” Jones said. “Kordell has got to fight for seven minutes, not five.”
For most of the match, the Sun Devils dominated the mat. Several ASU wrestlers slammed their foes onto the mat, indicating their offensive dominance both in neutral and top positions. This played a part in ASU’s riding time success.
“I think they had riding time in the first six matches,” Jones said. “I think the statistics tell you if you get riding time in matches, 95% of the time you’re going to win those matches.”
Overall, the Sun Devils showcased a dominant performance on almost every stage of the mat. From takedowns to riding time, ASU looked like a menace against Oklahoma.
The Arizona State Sun Devils won the wrestling PAC-12 championships three weeks ago. When handed their team trophy, head coach Zeke Jones trusted senior 197-pounder Kordell Norfleet to hold it.
“I handed [the trophy] to Kordell, the most responsible guy on the team- at least one of the most responsible. I said ‘Hey, you guys never got to take the trophy at night, go ahead and take it,” Jones said.
Unfortunately, Jones trusted the wrong wrestler.
“[Kordell] freaking broke the trophy,” Jones said.
Coach Jones would leave a corner of the trophy cracked for the team to look back on in the future.
“I’m going to leave it like that because I’m sure they are going to have some fun story down the road,” Jones said.
The Sun Devils’ broken trophy is a fitting story for the season they are having.
After last season’s underwhelming early end, fans of the sport were speculative of ASU’s chances to repeat their success.
“It was a bummer. I mean that was a year we targeted… Three years ago we had been setting up for last year. [We were] redshirting people so we could have everybody in last year,” Jones said.
The Sun Devils put all their chips in to win a national championship last season, and it seemed as if their opportunity slipped away as soon as the NCAA Championships were canceled. When this season began very few people expected Arizona State to perform as well as they did last year.
Coach Jones used this message as motivation for his wrestlers to play underdog this season.
“I think at the beginning of the season we were ranked 18th or 20th in the nation. They certainly did not count on [Cohlton] Schultz. But I think a little bit of the team saying “Hey we are better than that,’ and obviously they are now showing they are. But they still haven’t achieved their goal, and I think that’s what that message is,” Jones said.
In case it was not made clear, Coach Jones’ crew has yet to settle for anything less than a national title this season.
It’s as if the chip in the trophy is a metaphor for the chip on these wrestlers’ shoulders throughout the season.
Despite how perfect this team has performed, it still is not enough to win over the hearts of the NCAA wrestling committee.
ASU went undefeated in duels, won five individual conference titles, and the PAC-12 as a team. Despite their impressive year, the Sun Devils are only ranked tenth in the nation with just four wrestlers seeded eighth or higher in their respective weight class at nationals this weekend.
Kordell and his teammates plan on shocking the world with their crushing performance and are hopeful of taking home another team trophy. It would seem as if the team is more motivated to bring home another trophy to replace the one they already broke this season.
The Arizona State Sun Devils wrestling team capped off their phenomenal season with a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Wrestling Championships on March 20th. It’s the highest the team has placed since Coach Zeke Jones took over in 2014 and their first fourth-place finish since 1995.
“It was satisfying. You know the guys felt it was a goal they had, and I can tell you I think if anybody who studies wrestling and knows it you know we [weren’t] a favorite to take fourth. We were maybe a long-shot or a mid-shot,” Jones said.
Coach Jones exuded this type of behavior all season long. The team’s underdog mentality certainly served them well this year after moving up to fourth in the nation from their 18th seeded pre-season ranking.
Junior 125-pounder Brandon Courtney led the way for the squad with an appearance in the national championship at the 125-pound weight class and a second-place finish. He had thirteen takedowns, two decision victories, and ended the season as an All-American.
Alongside Courtney, four other Sun Devils earned All-American honors. Michael McGee, Anthony Valencia, Jacori Teemer, and Cohlton Schultz joined Courtney on the podium as well as All-American honors.
Junior 133-pound Michael McGee wrestled eight matches during the tournament which tied for the most bouts competed in. He finished in fourth place and tied with teammate sophomore 157-pound Jacori Teemer for the most total match points of all 266 wrestlers.
“One thing that Zeke always emphasizes before we step on a mat is to score points. So I might give up a takedown here, I might give up a reversal there, but that doesn’t mean wrestling stops. I’m always looking for, whether I’m on bottom or top or when I’m on my feet, I know I can score from those positions. It’s just pulling the trigger more often, and just wrestling more,” McGee said.
Teemer finished in sixth-place and had the most takedowns of any Sun Devil throughout the entire weekend with 20. Cohlton Scultz dominated most of the competition in his freshmen campaign. He pinned Stanford 285-pound Nathan Traxler in 44 seconds and had a major decision victory over Edinboro’s Jon Spaulding.
With four of the five All-Americans returning next year, ASU is set to have another strong season. They are looking to improve upon this amazing season with a team trophy that says “National Champions. “
“[Winning the fourth-place trophy] is like kissing your sister. It’s cool but it’s not that cool. We wanna win the team championship,” Jones said.
Certainly this season was one to remember for the men in maroon and gold, and Coach Jones’ team will look to expand upon their success in the upcoming seasons.
ASU Wrestling: Sun Devils look to ride momentum into PAC-12 Championships
Arizona State wrestling just finished the 2020-21 regular season undefeated in duels. Looking ahead, the team is entering their final weeks of the wrestling season. With just two postseason tournaments, PAC-12 Championships and NCAAs, they are looking to continue their strong season with another PAC-12 title. The team wants to repeat and win its fourth conference championship in five years.
Competition at PAC-12s will be scarce as Stanford is the only other team ranked in the top 25 in some of the coaches’ polls.
“We look at that as home court I guess or our conference. I think we are the premier team now in the PAC-12,” said ASU senior Kordell Norfleet.
The Cardinals’ senior Nathan Traxler and sophomore Shane Griffith will certainly be elite competition for Arizona State. Traxler placed second behind Kordell Norfleet at the PAC-12 Championships in the 197-pound division while Griffith took first place at 165-pounds.
ASU has enjoyed a wildly successful season. They went undefeated in duels during the regular season and have seven top twenty-five rostered wrestlers. Coach Zeke Jones and his squad are favored to win it all after compelling wins over No. 13 Oklahoma, No. 15 Wyoming, No. 11 Iowa State, and No. 20 Northern Iowa.
In addition to building on this year’s success, the Sun Devils hope to expand upon last season’s dominating performance at the PAC-12 Championships. In 2020, the boys in maroon & gold had five individual title winners and medaled every single wrestler including one second-place, three third places, and one fourth-place finish.
Expect a big performance from former Co-Most Outstanding Wrestler Kordell Norfleet. In his two PAC-12 Championships matches last season, Norfleet won by major decision and pinned Traxler from Stanford. The Sun Devil senior has already knocked off two top 25 competitors and has yet to lose this season. Norfleet has been terrorizing his opponents on the mat this season which should be a recurring theme in Corvallis, Oregon on February 28th.
Arizona State looks set to have another dominating performance after two exciting wins over top twenty-five opponents last weekend. The Sun Devils traveled to Ames, Iowa to take on No.11 Iowa State and No. 20 Northern Iowa. Since then, they have begun to prepare for next week’s conference championships. “We’re excited to head back home and get to work for the Pac-12 Championships and the NCAA Tournament.”
Here’s a breakdown of each weight class:
125-Pounds
Brandon Courtney hopes to win another conference championship this season. Courtney has had an impressive year and is ranked third at 125-pounds. Courtney has not lost a conference match since 2019, but Stanford’s Jackson DiSario will try to ruin his streak. Last year, the two went head-to-head in the conference finals as Courtney edged out DiSario with a 4-1 decision win. DiSario has improved greatly from the last time these wrestlers squared off. Right now, DiSario is ranked sixth in the nation and wants revenge. Courtney is still favored to win the conference in his weight class, but expect a tedious fight from Stanford’s dark horse candidate.
133- Pounds
Michael McGee has not lost a single match since his sophomore year. McGee should continue to dominate on the mat in two weeks. He won two MAC conference championships at Old Dominion before transferring to Arizona State, so it will come as no surprise that his success will translate over to a less competitive conference. The No. 7 ranked wrestler will compete for a chance to win his third conference title.
141-Pounds
Peter Lipari struggled to find momentum during the regular season. Lipari’s biggest issue has been his failure to score points in the latter portion of matches. Two of his four losses have gone to overtime when he couldn’t get escape points to tie the match. Lipari won both of his conference matches during the regular season, however. It certainly will not be an easy task for Lipari to win the conference, but he wishes to make one final push to qualify for NCAAs in his last collegiate season.
149- Pounds
Cory Crooks showed potential for a big postseason run during this year. Crooks only lost three matches and they all came to ranked opponents. Two of those losses were decided by a single point. With only two PAC-12 wrestlers ranked in the top 30 at 149-pounds, Cory will try to win his first-ever conference championship in his senior year.
157-Pounds
Jacori Teemer has been a force throughout his wrestling career in conference play. He won the PAC-12 at 157-pounds last year and is yet to lose against a conference opponent. Teemer might not have an easy path to another PAC-12 title this season. Senior Requir van der Merwe, from Stanford, and junior Hunter Willits, from Oregon State, are both ranked in the top 25 at 157-pounds. Van der Merwe is ranked nineteenth in the nation with a 5-1 record while Willits ranks twenty-third with a 7-2 record. Teemer’s only ranked opponent during the regular season was against No. 13 Justin Thomas from Oklahoma and resulted in a loss. Meanwhile, Merwe beat Thomas at the end of January before falling to Willits just a few days later. With tough competition, it is difficult to declare Teemer the clear favorite to win another conference title.
165-Pounds
Both No. 6 Anthony Valencia and No. 4 Shane Griffith won a PAC-12 title last season at their respective weight classes in 2020. It will be interesting to see if Griffith’s experience at 165-pounds will be enough to beat the senior. Neither of these wrestlers has squared off against national title caliber opponents. However, they are both undefeated and are prepared to cause upsets in the later rounds of NCAA championships.
174-Pounds
No. 17 Bernie Truax is the favorite to get his hand raised in the conference finals at 174-pounds this season. Truax beat Sun Devil sophomore Trey Munoz when Cal Poly ventured to Tempe earlier this month. Munoz will try to rewrite the script the next time these two shake hands.
184-Pounds
Senior Cade Belshay is looking to turn his lackluster season around. Belshay lost some very close and frustrating matches against multiple top ten wrestlers this season. He had an overtime loss to No. 18 Tate Samuelson from Wyoming. No. 8 Samuel Colbray from Iowa State beat him by a single point and No. 48 Darrien Roberts defeated Belshay by just three points earlier in the season. There shouldn’t be a lot of competition for Belshay at PAC-12s next week though, so perhaps he can contend for a conference title.
197-Pounds
Kordell Norfleet will “be ready to scrap,” next Sunday when he tries to claim his third PAC-12 title. Norfleet is fully prepared to continue his elite conference play. He lost his first-ever PAC-12 match by disqualification but has won every other match since then. He is also the only 197-pound wrestler who is ranked in the PAC-12.
HWT
The redshirt freshman Cohlton Schultz has already made a name for himself in the heavyweight division. He defeated three top-ten opponents in the regular season which includes: No. 9 Brian Andrews from Wyoming, No. 5 Gannon Gremmel from Iowa State, and No. 6 Carter Isley from Northern Iowa. Schultz will have his hands full with Stanford senior Nathan Traxler. Traxler is yearning to add another conference title under his belt before he graduates in May. Schultz will be the underdog and try to spoil the party for Traxler. Last season, Schultz’s teammate Kordell Norfleet upset Nathan Traxler during the regular season and would go on to beat him in the PAC-12 finals at 197-pounds. Of course, Cohlton will try and repeat this success.
Zeke Jones is hoping to win his fourth PAC-12 title in his first seven seasons as the head coach of the Arizona State wrestling team as the Sun Devils head to Corvallis, Oregon for the PAC-12 Championships on Sunday. Since joining the team back in 2015, Jones’ squad has only suffered two losing seasons.
Jones rebuilt a struggling program back to elite status within his first two seasons. Upon his arrival, Arizona State had just finished a disappointing 4-5 season. Now the team is looking to repeat as PAC-12 champions.
According to junior 197-pounder Kordell Norfleet, the Sun Devils are “the premier team in the PAC-12.” Such dominance can surely be attributed to the team’s head coach Zeke Jones.
Apart of Jones’ success stems from his ability to recruit. ASU earned the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation back in 2015, and last season they welcomed the No. 2 recruiting class.
“On the mat specifically, it’s recruit, recruit, recruit,” Jones said. “To recruit, kids have got to have trust that you’re going to help them get to their goal. A lot of high school coaches around the country, I coached them in college and now they’re coaching and have families of their own and they are sending [their athletes] our way. You know it’s relationship building,”
Jones has been such a great recruiter in part because of the mindset he has instilled in these high school athletes.
“Kids that come here don’t just want to win a national title. They want to win World and Olympic gold medals,” said Jones.
His mentality to always strive for more has certainly attracted some of the best wrestling talent in the country to Tempe, Arizona.
“Zeke puts in for us. He gets us ready for each match,” freshman heavyweight wrestler Cohlton Schutlz said.
Jones commitment to creating an environment that never settles has proven to be extremely beneficial.
Despite his concerted effort and dedication to the team, Jones was quick to accrediting his staff for his magnificent start as the Sun Devils head coach.
“Obviously we have a great staff that is helping these kids learn. We have coaches that worked at the world and Olympic level,” Jones said. His trust in the team’s assistant coaches inevitably led to a deep reliance on them to ensure an even better program.
“I call it our success. It’s impossible to win this thing by yourself. You need a lot of people helping you,” Jones said. “Maybe for our young reporters on here, man, is meet as many people as you can, build a community around what you do, build relationships with the people that you work with. I mean it’s the same thing here.”
The Sun Devils head coach will be put to the test once more on Sunday. If ASU can win another conference title this season, it surely would be a testament to Jones’ hard work and mindset who expects to end the season with two team trophies, one from PAC-12s this weekend, and then NCAAs in the ensuing weeks to follow.
“We pretended like we won the tournament last week. We had a get together with the team, and talked about what it would feel like after the championship,” Jones said.
This is the “strive for greatness” mentality that the Sun Devils head coach has carried with him throughout his tenure at ASU, which surely can explain the already impressive season.
It should also be mentioned that when a coach puts in the effort and expects nothing less than perfection, their players will reflect that. This is the case for the Arizona State wrestling squad.
“We’re on a quest for a national championship. So I think everybody is all hands on deck. Everybody is doing everything they can to be ready.” Jones said
Under the leadership of Jones ASU could be in line for another conference title. Moving forward, the squad will try to play the role as an underdog during NCAA championships and capture their first national title since 1988.
The Sun Devils looked to shutout Cal Poly for a second straight season after a staggering 49-0 win over the Mustangs nearly a year ago. Arizona State repeated their dominance over Cal Poly with a 34-6 win as six seniors said their goodbyes to Desert Financial Arena.
Four of the six seniors won their final bout at their home arena, as the match started and ended in the most perfect way for these seniors.
The Sun Devils’ 125-pound Brandon Courtney started the morning off strong by totaling 13 points and defeating Antonio Lorenzo by Major Decision.
ASU’s dominance continued into the 133-pound bout. Junior Michael McGee got a quick takedown and finished the first period with two minutes of riding time. After a Potentially Dangerous call on McGee, he would go on to score 6 unanswered points and eventually won the match 11-2.
Following the 133-pound match, the next four bouts all ended in minor decision wins. 141-pounder Peter Lipari was the first senior to wrestle this morning and finished his collegiate career undefeated at Desert Financial Arena, after a last-second takedown to defeat Lawrence Saenz.
Cory Crooks was the next senior in line to wrestle and fell to Legend Lamer due to riding points, and Cal Poly collected their first points of the match. Following his brother’s win, Brawley Lamer could not keep up with Jacori Teemer’s strength and swiftness as he fell 7-10. Anthony Valencia became the second senior to pick up a win after beating Adam Kemp 6-3 and improving to 6-0 on the season.
The Mustangs got their final points of the match after an exciting 184-pound bout between No. 22 Bernie Truax and Sun Devil freshman Trey Munoz. The two wrestlers started off slow, but Truax made sure to get a quick takedown in sudden death to win 4-2.
The Sun Devils completely controlled the final three matches of the dual. The last two seniors to compete dominated their opponents. Cade Belshay earned his second pin of the season in the first period, followed by a Tech Fall by Kordell Norfleet in the second.
“I was really happy for Cade when he got his victory today,” ASU head coach Zeke Jones said. “It’s good to see him come out and dominate as he has that ability and is finally able to put it together.”
Norfleet also scored ten points in the first period. This was followed by Cal Poly forfeiting the Heavyweight bout en route to a 34-6 Sun Devils victory.
“He’s setting the standard for Sun Devil Wrestling,” Jones said. “letting everybody know that every match he is coming to wrestle and he’s scoring in all three positions.”
Arizona State looks to stay undefeated this season ahead of their final two duals against No. 17 Iowa State, and No. 25 Northern Iowa.
Arizona State wrestling knocked off No. 17 Iowa State in a heavily contested dual this morning. With several ranked match ups, Coach Zeke Jones’ crew earned a tough 20-15 road victory.
For a second straight dual, ASU junior Brandon Courtney started the match off strong at the 125-pound bout. He got three early takedowns in the first period, and added four more in the third against Aden Reeves. Courtney’s swiftness helped him pick up a Major Decision. Michael McGee, ASU’s 133-pounder, continued to lay the hammer on Iowa State with a 9-4 win over Zach Redding. Very early in the match, McGee got six points.
The Sun Devils struggled to keep their momentum through the 141-pound to 157-pound bouts. Senior Peter Lipari, senior Cory Crooks and freshman Hunter Balk combined for just four total points across their matches. Lipari struggled against No. 6 ranked Ian Parker and lost 8-3. Crooks was also paired up with No. 6 ranked wrestler in his weight class at 149 pounds. He was scoreless throughout the entire bout. Next on the mat was Hunter Balk who wrestled instead of sophomore standout Jacori Teemer. Balk got an early escape point but No. 3 David Carr pinned him in the first period.
Arizona State has won four of their last five matches. Star senior Anthony Valencia had an exciting comeback to beat Isaac Judge. Valencia headed into the third period down 3-1 but he won the match after an escape, takedown and four point near fall. Freshman Trey Munoz followed Valencia with another thrilling bout at 174-pounds. Munoz took down No. 17 Julien Broderson with a 7-1 decision victory.
Sun Devil senior Cade Belshay fell short against No. 6 Samuel Colbray. Going into the third the score was tied at 4, but after a takedown by Colbray he won 6-5.
The Sun Devils won the final two matches of the dual. Senior Kordell Norfleet had another electrifying match against Yonger Bastida at 197-pounds. He was a menace on the mat and won 17-7. He is now 6-0 with one final match in the regular season. Freshman phenom Cohlton Schultz faced his toughest opponent this season when he faced No. 5 Gannon Gremmel. Schultz clinched ASU’s victory over Iowa State with an escape in sudden death to win by a single point.
Arizona State remained undefeated with a huge win over Iowa State. The No. 8 ranked Sun Devils proved once again why they are one of the best college wrestling programs this season. Looking ahead, ASU has one final duel in the regular season later today against No. 15 Northern Iowa. After that, they will try to repeat as PAC-12 champions.
Sports stories are one of my favorite genres to write for my school's magazine, The Voice. The opportunity does not come up too often, but when it does I jump on the chance to write that article.
Two years ago, a good friend that I've known since I was 5 years old, Joseph Tutera, ran for Governor of Kansas. Yes, in Kansas a teenager could run for governor because there were no age limits; in fact, 4 teenagers ran for Governor. I was very proud of my friend's dedication to his community and impressed with his initiative. I decided to write an article about his pursuit to the Governor's mansion. I learned a few things about my friend Joe as I researched this article and was glad to highlight him for my school community.
My first article for The Voice was a simple personality quiz meant to be lighthearted and entertaining. I learned that not all "journalism" is hard hitting, but entertaining articles are just as hard to create because you have to appeal across a diverse audience. Not everyone appreciated my "Caroline" quiz, well except maybe the real Carolines, but I enjoyed doing the research and creating it.
