TEMPE, Ariz.— The 2017 Ken Kraft Midlands Championships will take place at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman State, Ill. Dec 29-30, 2017 due to ongoing renovation of Northwestern's Welsh-Ryan Arena, where the tournament is generally held.
No. 1 Zahid Valencia (10-0) brings a still undefeated record into the weekend at 174 lbs.
Is anyone going to top the reigning champ and No. 1-ranked Zahid Valencia next week? #Midlands55 pic.twitter.com/fNQyi09feF
— The Midlands (@MidlandsChamps) December 24, 2017
In 2016, the Sun Devils earned their best finish at Midlands since 1989, a third-place finish as a team. The impressive showing marked ASU's first top-10 finish since 2001, first top-5 since 1997, and best finish since winning the tournament in 1989. It was also just the seventh time in the tournament's 54-year history that the Sun Devils finished in the top-five as a team (1984, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1996, 1997).
At last year's Midlands, then-No. 19 ASU finished just behind No. 3 Iowa and No. 7 Nebraska and ahead of 10 other ranked teams in attendance - No. 9 Lehigh, No. 10 NC State, No. 11 Rutgers, No. 12 Illinois, No. 14 Central Michigan, No. 15 Michigan, No. 17 Wisconsin, No. 18 Oklahoma, No. 20 South Dakota State, and No. 23 Pittsburgh.
Z. Valencia (174) and Tanner Hall (HWT) also won individual championships, the fourth time in program history the Sun Devils have had multiple individual champions at Midlands (also: 1988, 1989, 1996). Current head coach Zeke Jones was one of the Devils' multiple champions in 1989.
Josh Shields (157) and Anthony Valencia (165) finished third in their respective weight classes, the first time since 1997 ASU has had four-plus podium finishers.
ASU Individual Champions (Midlands)
1987 – Dan St. John (158)
1988 – Thom Ortiz (150), Dan St. John (158)
1989 – Zeke Jones (118), Andrew McNaughton (134), Thom Ortiz (142), Ray Miller (158), Dan St. John (167)
1995 – Markus Mollica (167)
1996 – Casey Strand (167), Aaron Simpson (177)
2001 – Eric Larkin (141)
2016 – Zahid Valencia (174), Tanner Hall (HWT)
Live video (for pay) will be available on FloWrestling.org.
Tickets can be purchased on Northwestern's website, with Friday's sessions (9:30 am/7:00 pm) $28 for adults and $23 for youth (2-12), Saturday's first session (12 pm) $31 for adults/$28 for youth, and Saturday's final session (7:05 pm) $33 for adults/$30 for youth. All-session tickets that cover all four sessions are $107 for adults/$97 for youth.
UP NEXT
After a month of tournaments, the Sun Devils return to dual action at North Carolina on Jan. 6 before the Virginia Duals Jan. 12-13. ASU returns home for back-to-back Pac-12 duals on Jan. 19 (8 pm) and Jan. 20 (1:30 pm), both broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.
SPECIAL TICKET PACKAGE FOR JAN. 19/20
With Pac-12 opponents in Stanford and Oregon State coming to town as well as the return of MMA Night and a 1988 NCAA championship reunion, fans are invited to buy a special ticket package for $15 for admission to both matches. This package can be purchased at: https://oss.ticketmaster.com/aps/sundevils/EN/buy/flexplan.
YEAR-END GIFTS
In order to help continue to build a brighter future for wrestling student-athletes at Arizona State and give the Sun Devils a competitive advantage, fans and supporters can make a tax-deductible year-end gift to support Sun Devil Wrestling at sundevilclub.com/give-wrestling.
ZAHID VALENCIA WINS SECOND STRAIGHT CKLV
Zahid Valencia was named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational (Dec. 1-2) for going 6-0 to win the 174 lbs title for the second consecutive year. Last season, he became the second Sun Devil freshman to win a CKLV title after Eric Larkin. As a team, ASU finished third (113.5 pts) behind Ohio State and Michigan, their best finish in over 17 years and first top-five finish since finishing fifth in 2005. The Sun Devils have had title winners at CKLV in three of the last four seasons, with Blake Stauffer also winning (184) in 2014. Tanner Hall (2nd), Josh Shields (3rd), Josh Maruca (5th), and Anthony Valencia (7th) also placed for ASU.
TSIRTSIS WINS RENO TOC
With a 5-0 streak, Jason Tsirtsis moved down a weight class (149) to win the Reno Tournament of Champions title (Dec. 17). The tournament, founded in 1994, now includes junior, high school, and college portions and the college version has grown from a four-way dual to a 16-team invitational. Tsirtsis defeated Stanford's Jake Berry, Wyoming's Jaron Jensen, North Dakota State's Kyle Gliva, Oklahoma State's Boo Lewallen, and NC State's Beau Donahue.