By Louis McIntyre

For the Daily Titan

Cal State Fullerton’s wrestling team was defeated by the Arizona State University Sun Devils 37-4 Sunday at Titan Gym.

It was the Titans’ second loss of the weekend after they were beaten by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Saturday.

The Sun Devils won nine of the 10 matches that took place, although some went down to the wire.

The highlight for the Titans was freshman Dylan Klink’s victory in the 197-pound division.

The matches began with the 165-pound division with freshman Blake Ginsberg representing the Titans. He lost to ASU’s Kyle DeBerry by a fall in the second period.

After three matches, the Sun Devils raced to a 13-0 lead with their opening victory backed up by point decision wins in both the 174 and 184-pound divisions.

The Titans needed a victory to stay in the match, and it was provided by Klink.

Klink led the entire match and after an impressive final period, won the match 10-1. This gave CSUF a win by major decision and brought the score to 13-4.

What made the victory even more exceptional was that Klink was wrestling up a weight class in the 197-pound division. 

“It’s more difficult to go up a weight class, so it’s good to win,” Klink said.

Although he said it wasn’t his hardest opponent, he was glad to get his first personal victory of the season after losing his match on Saturday.

The most nail-biting clash of the afternoon followed Klink’s win in the heavyweight division when the Titans’ Kurt Klimek went up against the Sun Devils’ Erik Nye.

After trailing early, Klimek fought back to 3-2 in the final period before taking down Nye as the buzzer sounded.

 The referee ruled the take down no good, which proved decisive with ASU securing a 16-4 lead at the halfway mark.

The 125-pound division saw CSUF junior Andre Gonzalez up against ASU junior Anthony Robles.

The one-legged Robles, who finished fourth at the NCAA wrestling championships earlier this year, beat Gonzalez and won by technical fall.

Titan Assistant Coach Risto Marttinen said it was hard for Gonzalez to adapt for the match, but he “got a lot of good pointers,” by going against a talented wrestler.

The 141-pound division featured a tough encounter between CSUF’s Adin Duenas and ASU’s Chris Drouin.

Although Drouin went on to win the match 7-5, the lead changed at various stages in the contest.

Duenas, a junior who led 2-1 after the first period, took the score to 5-5 midway through the final period.

Drouin proved too strong with a takedown in the final minute, which was enough to secure victory.

With ASU leading 30-4, the meet was already decided with two matches still to be played.

The Sun Devils won both of these to take the final score to 37-4 in favor of ASU.

Titan Head Coach Dan Hicks looked on the bright side after the meet, saying that next week’s Fullerton Open at Titan Gym will be the perfect opportunity for his team to get some match practice.

“Some guys battled really well, but we’ve got to develop every week,” Hicks said.

CSUF’s next duel meet is against San Francisco State on Dec. 11.