University claims GSL wrestling championship
Talk about seizing the moment.
With 15 seconds left in a losing match, University 220-pounder Clayton Fincher turned momentum on its ear Wednesday night, pinning Central Valley’s Matt Naccarato and paving the way for the Titans to take a 34-22 win over the Bears in the 20th Annual Battle of the Bone.
The drama was already running high enough at a packed CV gym.
Moments earlier, word came that Mead had lost its dual meet against Mt. Spokane, meaning that the winner would win the Greater Spokane League title outright.
That was icing on the cake, of course, after the Titans took their third straight Bone.
“We just have a great group of kids who work really hard,” said Titans coach Don Owen, whose team finished 8-1 in GSL duals, one ahead of CV and Mead.
“We have a motto that you live right, you don’t just wrestle hard and good things happen,” Owen said.
When it mattered most, good things happened for U-Hi. With the Titans trailing 21-16 and Taylor Rickel locked in a 4-all tie with Dillon Otta at 195, Rickel earned a last-minute escape and a takedown for a 7-4 win.
“I just wanted to push through as much as I could for myself, mostly for the team,” said Rickel, a junior.
As a bonus for the Titans, a team point was deducted from CV for coach misconduct, the first of two by the Bears.
That set the stage for Fincher, a sophomore who trailed for most of his match against Naccarato. Still trailing 3-2 with 15 seconds left, Fincher pivoted and slammed Naccarato to the mat for a 25-20 lead that all but decided the match.
“I’d been trying to get that lock,” Fincher said. “He came in, I pressured him a little bit and he gave it to me.”
Moments later, U-Hi 285-pounder Tate Orndorff pinned Jacob Herrin in the first round to make it 31-20.
As his teammates celebrated and Orndorff hoisted the Bone trophy, Fincher and Rickel soaked in the moment.
“I could tell by the way the seniors were running around, it meant the world for them,” Rickel said.
In a packed, raucous CV gym, the host Bears led for most of the night.
At 132, Bridger Beard gave CV the lead for the first time with the best defensive match of the night, 2-1 over Kavan Nielson.
The Titans responded at 138 with a 9-1 major decision win by Cam Sorenson over Kyle Neal to make it 10-8.
CV’s Blake Beard, a two-time defending state champ at 138, moved up a weight and dominated Dane Driskell, racking up four takedowns in the first 47 seconds before winning by fall with 18 seconds left in the first period.
That gave the Bear s a 14-10 lead, which grew to 18-10 on Braedon Orrino’s major decision over Hunter Gregerson at 152.
The Titans got decisions from Zack Martins at 160 and Levi Meinzinger at 170 to set the stage for the heroics by Rickel and Fincher.