U-Hi Bones Up On Cv

Prep wrestling

The University Titans wanted the “Bone” back. They took it. Then they beat the Central Valley Bears with it.

Opening the Greater Spokane League wrestling rivalry with two big wins at the opposite ends of the weight spectrum Thursday night, the Titans easily won the “Battle of the Bone” 46-16 before a large, enthusiastic audience at CV.

The win allowed University (8-1) to secure second place behind Gonzaga Prep. The Bullcaps capped a 9-0 season with a 62-5 win over Mt. Spokane.

The Valley match was expected to be close, but a pair of Bone rookies took care of that.

U-Hi senior Jeremy Dowling pinned Brandon Hunt 5 seconds before the end of the second period, and 101-pound freshmen Ryan Montang avoided a takedown in the closing seconds to edge Josh Heuett 7-6.

The Titans went on to win 10 of 14 matches.

“I never wrestled in the `Bone’ before,” Dowling said. “I had to get the ball rolling. Last year, we never got the momentum. He’s pretty strong and he’s bigger than me. I stayed in good position and let him make the first mistake. After that the crowd erupted. It was pretty amazing.”

Dowling got a reversal 13 seconds before the end of the second period for a 4-3 lead and turned that into a pin 8 seconds later.

Montang rallied from a 4-0 deficit to go ahead 6-4 with a takedown 1:10 from the end. Josh Heuett reversed that at 48 seconds to tie the match. Montang escaped at 13 seconds for the lead then was rushed off the mat as Heuett was taking him down with 3 seconds left.

“I kept scrambling so he couldn’t get me down,” said Montang. “I was pretty sure he didn’t take me down because I kept my hips away. … This was awesome, pretty cool.”

The Titans kept rolling, getting a technical decision from Todd Slater at 115, a pin in 2:43 by Tommy Owen, who went up a weight to 122 and a pin from Conor Jordan in 3:50 at 141.

By then, the crowd was running out of steam. The Titans added a major decision by Ben Osborn at 148, a first-period pin by Zach Ewers at 158 and a major decision by David Courchaine at 168.

As soon as the latter match ended, the crowd came to life again, anticipating a battle between once-beaten Blair Alderman of CV and undefeated Reggie Lee, who moved up a weight class.

Alderman never trailed after a scoreless first period and used three takedowns to win 7-4.

“I wanted to wrestle him,” Alderman, 23-1, said. “I wanted a good, solid match to gauge myself. I just stayed in position and tried not to let him control my arms.”

The evening ended when CV 190-pounder Tyree Clowe got a pin after 2:30.

“We lost the close ones,” CV coach Brett Raciot said. “At 101 and 129 … those were big blows. At 190 and heavyweight, we thought we could possibly get upsets. We just didn’t have the ability to win the close ones… . We didn’t wrestle well and we didn’t compete in certain weights. We’re young and we got caught up in the (excitement).”

Prep had eight pins against Mt. Spokane (0-9), including one by freshman Luke Kuhn in his first varsity match.

Ferris (3-6) edged South Hill rival Lewis and Clark (3-6) 31-24 by winning the last two matches. Chris Volk had a 4-1 decision at 190 pounds and unbeaten teammate Aaron Seddle followed with a pin at 215. The key match was a pin by Blake Tonago at 180 pounds.

Danny Gonalez defeated Noah Vigeil 8-2 in the opening 275-pound match to set the tone for Rogers’ 41-21 win over Mead for the Little Brown Jug. The Pirates (6-3, tied with CV) won the first three matches and when the Panthers (5-4) were coming back, Anthony Kep scored a major decision at 129 pounds to get Rogers back on track.

Adam Sonduck’s pin in the final match (215) gave Shadle Park (2-7) a 31-29 win over North Central (3-6). NC led 26-6 before Matt Murtrey got the Highlanders going with a second-round pin at 148 pounds. Shadle’s Ty Schuetzle finished 9-0 league and improved to 25-1 with a second-round pin at 158.

Great Northern League

Lakeside (6-0) moved one win away from a perfect league season with a 51-15 win at Chewelah that included two pins and five forfeits.

Lakeside’s Austin Laughery scored a reversal and near fall with 8 seconds left for a 13-10 win at 122 pounds, and teammate Sean Close (135) won 9-7 on a takedown with 10 seconds left. Seth Wetherland (101) of the Cougars (1-4) defeated Chris Mattheus 6-4 in a meeting of league unbeatens.

The GNL title will be decided Thursday, when Lakeside travels to Colville (5-0).

First-round pins by Gaylor Flute (178), Jonny Varona (215), Joe Gillespie (275) and Ryan Bowser (115) highlighted a streak of eight consecutive wins as visiting Medical Lake (3-2) defeated Newport 60-13.

Josh Haney (158) and Chris Bennett (122) of the Grizzlies (2-3) both improved to 21-0.

Joben Nuesse (129) and Spencer Murphy (190) remained unbeaten in league as Riverside (2-3) defeated visiting Pullman 81-0.

Murphy has pinned every league opponent. Pullman (0-5) had several wrestlers out because of sickness.

John Slater (115), Jason Divis (135) and Justin Divis (168) registered pins as Colville rolled to a 62-9 win at Deer Park (2-4). DP’s Seth McLean had a second-round pin at 275.