Central Oregonian

Cowboys cruise to Free-Berry title

CCHS wins by more than 100 points despite number-two wrestlers not counting in scoring

PHOTO COURTESY OF DOUG SMITH

Alex Urrea earns back points against a wrestler from Weiser, Idaho in the championship round of Saturday’s Free-Berry Invitational Wrestling Classic. Urrea lost the 160-pound match.

Lon Austin

January 03, 2013

The Crook County High School wrestling squad continues to be dominant.

Saturday, the Cowboys overwhelmed the competition at the 16-team Free-Berry Classic despite the fact that half of their wrestlers didn’t count in the scoring.

Although the Cowboys took 27 wrestlers to meet, only the first wrestler in each of the 14 weight classes was allowed to count in the scoring.

“They only scored one guy at each weight or we would have had a lot more points,” said head coach Jake Huffman. “We beat some tough teams and out of the 27 kids we took, 23 placed.”

Despite nearly half of their placing wrestlers not counting in the scoring, the Cowboys racked up 267 points in the tournament. McMinnville was a distant second with 161 points, while Weiser, Idaho was third with 142.5 points.

The host Pendleton Buckaroos finished fourth with 141 points while Willamina took fifth with 94 points.

Ten Cowboys wrestled in the finals of their respective weight classes, with five winning titles.

Brent Bannon (106), Trayton Libolt (113), Hayden Bates (132), Gunnar Crawford (195), and Curtis Crouch (220) all won weight class titles, with Libolt named the outstanding wrestler of the meet.”

Cowboy runnerups included Trey Shores (106), Grayson Munn (132), Colbran Meeker (138), Alex Urrea (160), and Gunnar Robirts (195).

Brad Howard (145), Clark Woodward (160), and Dean Smith (170), and Jason Williams also had outstanding tournaments, winding up in third place in their weight classes. Zach Smith (220), and Trevor Rasmussen (285) both finished fourth in the tournament despite having 2-2 records. Also wrestling well were Johnny Avina (113), Cole Ovens (126), Michael Seyl (138), Ryder Shinkle (145), and Aaron Swindle (182), who each had one loss in the tournament and finished fifth.

Placing sixth for the Cowboys were Dawson Barber (152), and Kyle Ogbin (170), who finished with identical 3-2 marks.

The Cowboys placed at least one wrestler in 13 of the 14 weight classes. The only class where Crook County failed to place was at 120 pounds.

“It was a good team effort,” Huffman said. “It really is just a way for us to evaluate our team and take notes to see where we can get better.”

Crook County hosted Mountain View on Thursday in an Intermountain Hybrid dual. The Cowboys do not wrestle again until Thursday, Jan. 10, when they travel to Culver for the Cowdog Classic. Wrestling is set to begin at 5:30 p.m.

“We are blessed to be healthy and we are going to just continue to work on getting better,” Huffman said.