SOU ROUNDUP: Potter wins first CCC men’s wrestling title
Published 9:23 pm Saturday, February 17, 2024
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LA GRANDE — Southern Oregon junior Evan Potter, already a two-time All-American, made a coveted addition to his hardware collection by becoming a Cascade Conference champion for the first time Saturday evening at Quinn Coliseum.
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The NAIA’s No. 1-ranked junior from Junction City completed his unbeaten run through the 141-pound bracket and was joined in the final session by teammate Simon Graeber, a No. 10-ranked sophomore who took second place at 133. As for the rest of the Raiders, there was good news and bad news on the second day of the CCC Championships.
The good news: SOU qualified nine individuals automatically for the NAIA Championships, the team’s highest number since its most recent national runner-up finish in 2015. It had been six years since the Raider produced more than five qualifiers. Fourth-place finishers Vonn Fenn (125 pounds), Aaron Gandara (157) and Alex Hernandez (174), and fifth-place finishers Anthony Perez (141), Travis Thorpe (149), Dylan Straley (157) and Andrew Herrera (197) each earned passes to compete in Park City, Kan., on Feb. 29 through March 2.
The bad: No one else joined Potter and Graeber in the All-CCC circle as the No. 14-ranked Raiders couldn’t unseat defending champion Menlo (Calif.), landing fourth in the team standings with 115 points. The No. 3-ranked Oaks won with 156, well ahead of No. 4 Providence (Mont.) (133.5 points) and No. 11 Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) (119.5). They boasted three individual champs and three more finalists.
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Potter, whose only losses this season were medical forfeits, brought his record to 23-2. He held off a pair of defensive Corban opponents, No. 24 Bo Davis and Luke Jensen, in the semifinals and finals, both by 6-2 decision. Graeber, back after going 1-2 at the tournament as a freshman last year, got Colby Evens of Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) by 9-2 decision in the semis before Menlo’s No. 2 Jovan Garcia defeated him by technical fall for the title.
Fenn, Gandara and Hernandez each settled for fourth after going down in the semifinals, though Hernandez nearly upset No. 2 NaKoda Siegel of MSU-Northern in his before a takedown with 10 seconds left gave Siegel a 5-4 victory.
The NAIA will announce 30 addition wild-card national qualifiers next week.
Men’s Basketball
CORBAN 80, SOU 61: At Salem, Taylor Anderson had 23 points and seven assists and Jay Wilson scored 22 to lead hot-shooting Corban in Cascade Conference play Saturday.
The Warriors (16-9, 13-7 CCC) shot 56% to pull into another fourth-place tie with the Raiders (15-11, 13-7).
SOU fell behind 17-4 in the first six minutes of the game and never got out of that hole. They trimmed a nine-point halftime deficit to 35-31 early in the second before Reece Van Lierop and Wilson responded with back-to-back 3-pointers.
Cole McAninch led the Raiders with 14 points and four rebounds but fouled out in 22 minutes. Dominic McGarvey scored 12, and Mason Whittaker went 3-of-5 from 3 to add nine points.
Women’s Basketball
SOU 81, CORBAN 49: At Salem, No. 22-ranked Southern Oregon stretched its winning streak to 12 games and claimed an eighth consecutive CCC road victory for the first time in team history.
Sierra Scheppele shot 6-of-7 from 3-point range to score a game-high 20 points for the Raiders, who were up 15 points by the end of the first quarter and 45-19 at halftime.
SOU stands 22-4 overall and 18-2 in CCC play, still one game behind first-place Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), which comes to Ashland at 3 p.m. next Saturday for the regular-season finale.
Sophomore forward Eliza DiGiulio scored a career-high 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting, collected three rebounds and distributed three assists. Meghan McIntyre had 12 points, five assists and two steals, Mallory Williams hit three 3s, Clara Robbins pulled down 10 rebounds, and Izzy Hernandez went for eight points and four assists.
Softball
SOU SWEEPS: At Surprise, Ariz., No. 2-ranked Southern Oregon blew past its single-game runs record in a 25-1 win over Ottawa (Ariz.), and Mayze Menefee followed Katie Machado’s gem with one of her own in a 6-0 shutout of Park Gilbert (Ariz.) on Saturday.
SOU ripped 22 hits in five innings against Ottawa, 13 of which went for extra bases. Kennedy Kila became the first Raider ever to come off the bench and hit two home runs, going 3-for-3 with a double and three RBIs. Hannah Clavelle, Brooke Nordahl and Emma Stang also went deep, and Clavelle added a double while driving in three runs and scoring three more.
Twelve different players had at least one hit for the Raiders, who had never previously scored more than 20 runs in a game. Jordan Henderson and Kelly Ann McKeown both logged a double, two hits and three RBIs, and Nordahl drove in a team-high four runs.
Machado struck out six without a walk and improved to 4-0, going all five against the Spirit (6-7). Menefee pitched a complete-game three-hitter against Park (2-7) for her third career shutout.
The Raiders (7-2) have won six in a row. They allowed two runs, only one earned, over their four-game road trip and didn’t commit an error on Saturday.
Piper Love doubled three times and drove in two against Park. The junior catcher has gone 11-for-17 with six doubles over the Raiders’ last five games, raising her batting average to .485.
Hailey Seva was 2-for-2 with two runs scored, Jordan Henderson stroked a run-scoring single and a sacrifice fly, and Clavelle added another RBI double.