ASHLAND, Ore. – Despite representing the underdog in six of ten weight classes scheduled tonight at the Lithia Motors Pavilion, the No. 13-ranked Corban University Men's Wrestling team fought to the bitter end and provided themselves with numerous opportunities to escape with a road dual victory over No. 9-ranked Southern Oregon University, yet dropping three decisions in the final rounds eventually resulted in a 24-16 win for the Raiders to give SOU the season dual sweep of the Warriors.
"We competed well but lost too many close matches tonight due to bad positioning," detailed Warriors' head coach Nolan Harris. "That was the difference in the final team score. Regardless, I feel good about where we're at. The conference tournament has been the focal point of our training for the past month, and we're looking forward to three weeks from now where we hope to be wrestling our best."
An opening pin at 125lbs by junior Brayden Boyd over Raiders' Diesel Del Rosario was encouraging for Coach Harris and his program knowing they would give those six team points right back via a forfeit at 133, yet a last second 10-9 decision flipped in favor of SOU's No. 3-ranked Evan Potter over Corban's No. 18-ranked junior Luke Jensen swung the momentum back in favor of the hometown team.
Junior Bo Davis returned the favor with a 4-3 comeback decision of his own at 149lbs over Raiders' Travis Thorpe, though Southern Oregon's No. 4-ranked wrestler at 157 represented by Aaron Gandara secured a pin of Warrior sophomore Gus Menne to provide SOU with a 15-9 lead.
For the third-straight dual, the No. 2-ranked grappler at 157lbs, redshirt senior David Rubio, moved up a weight class and once again handled a nationally ranked opponent in SOU's Dylan Straley, handing the Top 15 wrestler an 18-4 major decision on his home mats to pull the Navy and Gold to within two points on the scoreboard.
Fight as the Warriors did, three-straight decisions by Southern Oregon at 174, 184, and 197 all by three or less points provided the Raiders with just enough distance to make the final weight class result insignificant in terms of flipping their dual loss into a come-from-behind victory, yet redshirt junior Antonio Garcia showed out in front of the program he transferred to Corban from and earned a 9-4 decision to end tonight's dual on a high note for the Warriors.
#9 Southern Oregon 24, #13 Corban 16
125 – Brayden Boyd, CRB, p. Diesel Del Rosario, 2:31
133 – No. 12 Dylan Clark, SOU, wins by forfeit
141 – No. 3 Evan Potter, SOU, dec. No. 18 Luke Jensen, 10-9
149 – Bo Davis, CRB, dec. Travis Thorpe, 4-3
157 – No. 4 Aaron Gandara, SOU, p. Gus Menne, 2:47
165 – No. 2 David Rubio, CRB, major dec. No. 14 Dylan Straley, 18-4
174 – Braylin Ruchti, SOU, dec. German Munoz, 10-8
184 – No. 13 Adrian Chavez-Morales, SOU, dec. No. 14 Isaiah Twait, 5-2
197 – No. 8 Asher Ruchti, SOU, dec. No. 16 Hunter James, 6-3
285 – No. 10 Antonio Garcia, CRB, dec. Ben Hughes, 9-4
One final weekend of home duals against NCAA DIII opponents now sits between Corban men's wrestling and the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) Tournament, as the Warriors will host Linfield University next Friday at 7pm in the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center.
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