University wins GSL for fallen Fish
University’s cradle rocked East Valley’s world as the Titans, wrestling for an injured comrade, won their second successive Greater Spokane League championship Saturday at Central Valley.
U-Hi dedicated the league title match to senior state championship contender Chase Fish, who had surgery this past week on his ankle broken the Saturday before, which ended his season.
“Everyone’s bummed that Fish is out,” said Brian Owen, who opened the night with the first of four successive cradle pins that staked U-Hi to a 24-0 lead on the way to a 38-23 win over the Knights.
“This whole match, the GSL title, is for him,” said Owen. “He’s been here all four years leading the way.”
U-Hi’s cradlers, using a move in which wrestlers encircle an opponent’s body, cinch it into a cradle-like position and pull him to his back, staged a bit of one-upmanship with each ensuing fall.
Owen ended his 112-pound match at the 2:47 mark of the second round. The defending state champion admitted that, in a season shortened by a back injury, he’s not in tourney form.
“I haven’t been working out so I’m a little out of shape,” he said. “But that wasn’t too bad, was it?”
Mike Malsam, at 119, followed with his cradle pin at 2:40. Craig Byers, Fish’s replacement at 125, cut another couple of seconds off, pinning in 2:38. Greg Williams, who dropped down to 130, needed just 1:51, ending his match in the first round.
“We’re just really good at cradles,” said Williams. “We work on them all the time – persistent, persistent, persistent. We’re deadly with cradles.”
Williams also credited his drop from 135 with giving him a strength advantage over his foe.
Each pin was worth six points and, more important, put the burden on EV to duplicate that once the match got to their strengths from 145 on up.
But the Titans wouldn’t cooperate. They only lost one match by pin, from EV’s Clete Hanson at 171, and another by five-point technical fall.
They came within 4 seconds of an upset win by Nick Bickley at 140 and hung close in three losses from 189 through 275.
The latter, despite the fact U-Hi had already clinched the GSL championship and was ahead 34-20, elicited the loudest crowd noise of the night.
It pitted EV unbeaten Tyler Jolley against U-Hi’s Dono Totten. Uncharacteristic for a match between the sport’s biggest men, it provided plenty of action, excitement and scoring.
Jolley won 10-7, but needed a takedown with 3 seconds left in the first round to break a tie and another, the last of his four, as time was winding down in the match.
“That was one of the better matches we’ve had all year,” said Titans coach Don Owen of U-Hi’s complete victory. “Fortunately, we started where we did and could gain that momentum. It worked out that we got some pins where we were kind of dominant and where they were somewhat dominant they didn’t get as many pins.”
Several Titans wrestlers dropped down in weight for this match to accommodate Fish’s absence, and U-Hi won the night’s first five classes to lead 27-0. The score was 34-8 before EV’s upper-weight standouts took to the mat needing to win the final five matches, four of them by pin.
The Knights won four straight, but only Hanson got the pin. U-Hi got the title.
“I’m pleased with how the more inexperienced kids on our team, how hard they fought,” said Owen. “I’ve very proud of this team. We’ve had a lot of (injuries) this year. They’ve weathered some stormy seas and I’m really proud of their effort tonight.”
•After trailing the Clarkston Bantams early, host Central Valley finished third in league for the third straight year with a 51-15 victory. The Bears fell behind 9-3 after three matches, then ran off six wins in a row for a 27-9 advantage.
Brothers Trent and Tyler Cochran, and Nick and Justin Walker, all victorious, combined for 17 points. In the next-to-last match, Jeremy Savage won a two-overtime thriller at 130 by riding out Casey Fuller in the second minute of extra time.
•Colfax, led by 16 district qualifiers, ran away with the Northeast A League Tournament at Freeman. The Bulldogs – led by first-place finishes from Jeff Jordan (135), Jake Shahan (152), Tony Starrett (160), Josh Campbell (171) and Hugh Jones (189) – finished with 186 team points, nearly 100 more than second-place Newport (195), which is sending 11 wrestlers to the district tournament at Reardan. Kettle Falls (143 points) and Freeman (118) took third and fourth, respectively.
•Wilbur-Creston/Keller – led by first-place finishes from Seth Anderson (130), Sean Weeks (152), Evan Jones (160) and Leonard Woolsey (171), took the team title at the District 7 B championships. The Wildcats finished with 207.5 points, 22.5 ahead of second-place Davenport (185).
•Riverside posted two late pins to ensure a 39-22 win over Deer Park in the ninth annual Battle of the Horns at Deer Park. The Great Northern League win was Riverside’s seventh in the series.