Local wrestling fans will get the opportunity Thursday, Nov. 13, to see a local boy who’s made good, Tyler Cowger, wrestle at Oregon State University.
Cowger and his Southern Oregon University teammates, 2-0 and ranked second in the NAIA preseason polls, will face off against the Beavers at 7 p.m. at Gill Coliseum. The match is also scheduled to be aired on the Pac-12 Oregon website.
Cowger burst onto the national scene his freshman season at Southern Oregon University with a fifth place in the NAIA nationals at 149 pounds and All-American honors after cracking the Raiders’ line-up early in the year and finishing 25-11.
He and three other former Sweet Home wrestlers are competing for the Raiders this season, which opened with matches at home against Menlo College (Calif.) on Nov. 7 and on the road at the Mike Clock Open tournament at Pacific University in Forest Grove Sunday, Nov. 9.
Against Menlo, Cowger broke a scoreless tie with a takedown in the third period on his way to beating Jose Maldonado, 3-1. He’s ranked fourth at 149 pounds in the NAIA preseason polls. In the Mike Clock Open, he was seeded second and won three matches before losing to top-seeded Abraham Rodriguez of Oregon State in the 149-pound final, 14-6.
The Raiders are starting their season ranked second in the nation in NAIA polls, with nearly their entire lineup returning and featuring nine wrestlers who will start the season in the NAIA rankings at their respective weights, headlined by three-time 174-pound champion Brock Gutches (Crater), as well as two-time All-American Taylor Johnson (Redmond), who is ranked second at 197 pounds.
Cowger is one of four Sweet Home alums wrestling for Southern Oregon. Senior Brock Crocker who went 6-6 last season, is viewed as a challenger at 165 pounds behind Garrett Urrutia of Lebanon, who went 18-14 as a freshman, placed fourth in the West and got a taste of the NAIA championships with one consolation win.
In the Black and Red Intrasquad, Crocker dec. Luke O’Connor of Glide 6-0.
Also on the Raiders roster this year are 285-pound sophomore Zach Gill and Scotty Stockman, a redshirt sophomore at 149 pounds, also from Sweet Home. Stockman lost 16-3 to Oregon State’s Rodriguez at the Mike Clock Open, then fell 14-6 to Kenji Yamashita of Simon Frasier.
Another familiar face to local wrestling fans is senior All-American Dalton Urrutia of Lebanon, who returns at 157 pounds after redshirting last year. He’ll open at No. 2 in the West and No. 6 in the NAIA, trying to top the eighth-place standing he earned as a junior.
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Olivia Johnson Shockley, a senior at Corban, finished 30th at the Cascade Collegiate Conference cross-country conference championships Saturday, Nov. 8, at Fernhill Park in Portland, running 19:30.
The Warriors finished seventh on both the men’s and women’s sides, with senior Emily Childers of Milton-Freewater finishing as Corban’s top runner with 15th place in the women’s race in 18:40, leaving her on the bubble as an at-large qualifier for the NAIA championships.