University welcomes new year with new zest

Following a lethargic pre-Christmas loss in a non-league wrestling match, University coach Don Owen let his charges know in no uncertain terms that more was expected of them.

“I don’t think it can be repeated in the newspaper,” said his nephew Brian in recalling the conversation.

Whatever was said was taken to heart by the Titans, who put seven wrestlers in the finals to win their Pacific Northwest Classic tournament on Saturday.

“I don’t know if we even won seven matches against Ferris (in U-Hi’s season-opening GSL dual match) and then we get seven finalists here,” said Brian. “It shows how we’re improving.”

Brian was one of four U-Hi champions and U-Hi scored 227 points to 204 over longtime power Moses Lake, with Class 1A Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls turning in a giant effort for third with 203.5.

Greater Spokane League schools had 16 of 28 finalists and 8 of 14 titles. Lakeside added six finalists and four champions. Moses Lake had five finalists and the other two individual champs.

“Having six finalists is great,” said first-year Lakeside coach Troy Hughes, “The guys in the semifinals wrestled real well and the guys in the finals did a good job. But I guess the competitive side of me was hoping to come in and win the thing.”

Unfortunately for the Eagles, the Titans wrestled inspired. Owen (130 pounds) and Anthony Rivera (125) won as expected and Danny Jordan (160) took the first tournament title of his career. They were joined by freshman Tyler Clark (103), who got things started with a major 11-2 decision over Gonzaga Prep state placer David Hall.

“Tyler won every match convincingly,” said Don Owen. “He beat a kid (Hall) ranked No. 2 in the state. Other kids, who placed second or lower wrestled real well and of course Brian is always dazzling.”

In his final, the younger Owen scrambled to a 7-0 lead in an important head-to-head match against Moses Lake’s Gabe Guzman. Eighteen seconds into the second period, he started a throw one way, then took it back the other for a pin.

“He can do some things nobody else can, I can tell you that,” said his uncle. “He’s got wrestling figured out to a T.”

Rivera preceded him with a 9-0 major decision over Ferris’ Brandon Riehle and Jordan escaped with 5 seconds remaining for a 3-2 win in another head-to-head match with a Moses Lake foe, Josh Nielsen.

“I was really pleased,” Don Owen said. “We wrestled far above any of our seeds, which is nice. We had a wakeup call a couple of weeks ago, but I felt like we wrestled with more intensity and a lot more fire in the belly.”

Lakeside’s champions included Reid Chivers, who edged East Valley’s Clete Hanson 4-3 at 189 to reverse the outcome of their earlier Tri-State Tournament title match. Jacob Lauderdale (119) won by 15-point technical fall at 119 and Wes McAdam (171) broke a 5-5 tie in the third period for his 11-5 win. The fourth winner was Kyle Johnson, 11-4 over G-Prep’s Kevin Healy. Johnson had also won at Tri-State.

“This year is the same as every year, I just want to go out and have a lot of fun,” Johnson said. “I expected this to be tough, but expected to place well.”

Central Valley’s Tanner Teeples (112, by pin), Josh Renfro (152) and Tyler Cochran (215), and EV’s Nic Price (145) were other GSL champions at the tournament.

Snohomish Panther Classic: Mead won four championships and scored a tournament-best 259 points to win the 16-team tournament.

Philip Smith (125), Ben Moore (152), Drew Comito (160) and Jacob Trotter (215) won titles. Ben Snow (140) and Nick Bond (145) were second among 20 placers.

Cheney Invitational: Deer Park finished a distant second to Ellensburg, which had six finalists, four champions and placed a dozen to win with 241 points.

DP’s Stags had 143 points and third-place North Central 136. Each had two champions, NC’s Jared Berlinger (103) and Nathan Brown (112) out of the chute.

DP champs were Levi Zadorozny (119) and Waylon Cork (160). Other winners were Cheney’s Austin Miller (152) and Pullman’s Matt David (140).