Titans All But Seal Title, But Owen Finds Flaws

University wrestling coach Don Owen is going to let his Titans know that looks can be deceiving.

Powered by pins from four seniors in their last home match, the 6-0 Titans all but clinched the Greater Spokane League championship Wednesday night with a 39-20 win over Gonzaga Prep.

But considering the Bullpups (4-2) won six of the 13 matches, Owen knows there is plenty of work with the district meet just over two weeks away.

“I was real pleased with how the seniors went out and got us pins,” Owen said. “I wasn’t real pleased with the overall performance. We lost all the close matches. But don’t take anything away from the kids who wrestled well.”

Starting at 115 pounds, Titans Josh Knowles and Andy Roberts won the first two matches, but Prep’s Tyler Kuhns and Steve Steigleder won the next two for a 9-8 University lead. Then 141-pound senior Scott Garcia fired up the crowd and his teammates with a pin of freshman Nick Bliss in 56 seconds.

“When Scott pins someone it pumps up the crowd and everyone else,” teammate Matt Smith said. “He’s a pinner. He brings a lot of energy.”

Dusty Roberts followed by pinning Ryan Malone in 4:26 at 148 pounds.

Prep’s Dan Short slowed the Titan express with a hard-fought 9-7 decision over Darren Duncan at 158 pounds, but Smith and Kitt Moffitt came back with quick pins to run the lead to 33-11.

Owen preferred to look on the bright side.

“It’s nice to know we have some stuff to work on,” he said. “But I would like to be moving up at this time and we didn’t make the jump. We’ve got time to make it in the next two weeks.”

Making progress is Smith, who was trailing 2-1 when he stuck Prep’s Wendall Smith in the blink of an eye. Prep’s Smith had scored a takedown but U-Hi’s Smith escaped. They were locked up on their feet as the 1-minute mark passed when Matt Smith fired a takedown, caught Wendall Smith in a fireman’s cradle and rolled him to his back for a pin at 1:06.

“It’s a pretty fast move and if you do it right they go straight to their back,” the winning Smith said. “I’ve been working on that in practice. It’s not my best move, but it was open and I took it.”

After that, Moffitt got the Titans’ fourth senior pin in 2:16 over Rex Mangiaracina at 178 pounds.

Dave Rucker scored a two-point reversal over Mike Clark with 56 seconds left for a 3-2 win at 190 pounds before U-Hi heavyweight Jeff Schmedding pinned Christian Borhnsen with 1 second left in the second period.

Prep closed out the match with Chris Montgomery’s 3-0 decision of Craig Bishop at 101 pounds and Cory Brannon’s 6-0 decision of Taner Scarlett decision at 108.

University 39, G-Prep 20

115 - Knowles (U) md. Brown 11-3. 122 - A.Roberts (U) tf. Goularte 22-7. 129 - Kuhn (G) md. Richardson 11-3. 135 - Steigleder (G) md. Peterson 14-6. 141 - Garcia (U) p. Bliss :55. 148 - D.Roberts (U) p. Malone 4:26. 158 - Short (G) d. Duncan 9-7. 168 - M.Smith (U) p. W.Smith (G) 1:06. 178 - Moffit (U) p. Mangiaracina 2:16. 190 - Rucker (G) d. Clark 3-2. HWT Schmedding (U) p. Borhnsen 3:59. 101 - Montgomery (G) d. Bishop 3-0. 108 - Brannon (G) d. Scarlett 6-0.

Frontier League

Quinton Chapman (115), Casey Stookey (122), Rusty Ruchert (141) and Jason Moody (190) had pins as host East Valley (2-0) handed a 41-22 loss to Clarkston (1-2).

101 - Woolf (E) d. Reyes 12-6. 108 - Walker (E) d. LaRock

11-9. 115 - Chapman (E) p. Parks 2:47. 122 - Stookey (E) p. Heitz 3:21. 129 - Eastman (E) d. Vernon 9-3. 135 - Singer (E) md. Pourier 19-9. 141 - Ruchert (E) p. Fisher 3:20. 148 - Campbell (E) md. Ball 18-8. 158 - Havens (C) p. Schroeder 2:53. 168 - Stegner (C) p. Trinkle 4:38. 178 - Thivierge (C) p. Alexander 1:53. 190 - Moody (E) p. Hollenbeck 1:26. 275 - Mountjoy (C) p. Wise 3:19.