Titan Team Effort Takes The Bone
A wrestling match can create a passionate atmosphere for competitors and fans alike.
Wednesday’s emotion-filled Battle of the Bone between University and Central Valley high schools was no exception.
“I believe everyone got their money’s worth,” Titan coach Don Owen said following U-Hi’s harrowing 33-29 win, decided in the final 47 seconds of the final contest.
“There were so many close matches, it was one of those things that was good for the fans and fun for the wrestlers.”
Maybe not so much fun for the Bears, who had rallied from a 30-9 deficit after losing seven of the first nine matches to within a point with four straight wins.
CV saw its championship hopes die in the 190-pound finale that also kept the Bears continue winless in the 1990s against their archrival.
The 6-1 Titans end the GSL season at Gonzaga Prep Thursday against the unbeaten Bullpups.
The sum of a wrestling match is divided into 14 parts. Each can be a mini-drama in itself. Such was the case Wednesday when Owen was at his strategic best and CV coach Dale Ethridge was forced to alter his lineup because of illness to starters at 101 and 129 pounds.
Owen’s two major ploys succeeded. First he bumped Andy Roberts up two weights to 141 pounds, where he won by major decision over sophomore Courtney Brown. Then he made a last-second decision to have Mike Clark wrestle at 190 pounds instead of 178.
Only five days earlier, Roberts had competed in a tournament weighing 125 pounds.
Titan Jason Vandevanter took over at 129, where he broke a 2-2 tie in the third period to win 7-3 over freshman Dave Burnett. Burnett was up a weight, subbing for ailing Jason Ishiguro.
U-Hi’s Ed Stretch wrestled at 135 and his aggressive effort led to a pin.
Two featured matches pitted each teams’ best against the other at 108 and 115. They were barn-burners.
The 108-pound match pitted second-year foes Craig Bishop and John Reese against each other. U-Hi’s Bishop barely gained the upper hand, 6-4, each of his points coming in the third period.
At 115, CV’s Shane Cunanan squared off with Jared Osborn and eked out a 7-6 win in the third period with an escape and his third takedown of the match.
They had followed a pair of quick first-period pins that got the standing-room only crowd rocking.
The night’s final five contests produced more ear-splitting decibles as CV roared back into contention.
CV won four straight to make the score 30-29. Included were Rick Giampietri’s 15-point decision that gave CV five team points and pins by Shane Yackel and Joe Thiefault for a total of 12 more. Yackel struggled against Jeremy Tiffany, leading just 3-2 when he sunk a figure four head scissors with 30 seconds left.
That led to Owen’s decision to bump up Clark in the night’s final match. For 26 teammates and 2,000 screaming fans, the outcome fell on the shoulders of two individuals.
Clark was wrestling John Jolley, who had beaten him earlier this year. Jolley, however, hadn’t wrestled for a month because of a broken hand. The tender appendage and layoff spelled the difference, Clark with yet another late third-round rally to break a 5-5 tie.
Pandemonium ensued. With The Bone, a femur mounted on a trophy base at stake, you’d have thought every Titan in the place had wrestled the match with him.
When it rains, it pours
During times like this West Valley athletic director Wayne McKnight might have wished he had remained in coaching.
Then again, maybe not.
On the heels of the recently resolved basketball controversy, McKnight has found himself in the middle of another.
During Thursday night’s wrestling match in Colville the match was suspended after Eagle 190-pounder Josh Kelp won by pin in the final seconds and his foe head-butted the official, knocking him out.
The flagrant misconduct resulted in a two-point team deduction and 24-20 Colville lead with four contests remaining in a match between league unbeatens.
The crowd then become unruly and Colville officials confirmed that one of their parents threatened a WV parent. Eagle fans and team were given a protective escort out.
“It’s too bad the focus is no longer on how hard both teams wrestled,” said WV coach Bill Bauman.
Options are that the Eagles receive a forfeit victory, finish the match at a neutral site, or accept the score as it stands.
“I don’t know what our obligation is, but we won’t finish it next week,” said McKnight.
Next week is the season for the Eagles and East Valley, which is also unbeaten.
WV has three matches scheduled on successive days beginning Tuesday, and EV hosts Colville on Tuesday and is at WV on Thursday.
The situation in Colville disturbed McKnight.
“I was involved as a coach in wrestling for 21 years and I’ve never seen, heard or read of a referee getting hit,” he said.
U-Hi gymnasts remain perfect
University High School’s gymnastics program have won another Greater Spokane League championship.
That makes four straight for the Titans who have not lost in the GSL since the first match in early December, 1993.
During that time they have compiled a stunning 79-2 record and should win three more next Thursday in their home finale against Lewis and Clark, Rogers and North Central whose combined league record is 13-41.
Thursday, University dispatched its remaining closest challengers, Ferris and Mead, 168.2 to 162.05 and 159.0.
Kim Meyers and Kalie Cossette went one-two all-around with 35.1 and 34.75 total scores, to beat Ferris’s Liz Miller.
They also divided individual events titles. Meyers won bars and beam, Cossette won vault and floor exercise.
Teammate Coleen Pierce was third all-around.
Central Valley is tied with Mead for third place after winning last week, Lindsay Linerud winning three events and beating teammate Sarah Shyrack for all-around honors.
Former teammates to do battle
Kristin Hepton and Regan McCliment, teammates on Central Valley’s undefeated state championship basketball team, will meet as foes Wednesday at Gonzaga University.
Hepton plays for the University of Portland and McCliment plays for Gonzaga. Game time is 5:15 p.m. in Gonzaga’s Martin Center.
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