Moreno wins third conference title, Raiders garner four champions overall to win by four points

REDDING, Calif. — In what amounted to a two-team race with no margin for error, Southern Oregon did what was needed up and down its 12-person lineup to win the Cascade Conference Women’s Wrestling Championship for the second time by four points on Sunday at the Grant Center.

Top-ranked senior Carolina Moreno notched her third CCC title in the 131-pound bracket, while three more Raiders — top seeds Jasmine Howard (117 pounds), Bailey Dennis (180) and Kat Hingano (207) — became first time champions. SOU, ranked No. 5 in the final NAIA poll, accumulated 166 ½ points, and No. 4 Providence (Mont.) landed on 162 ½.

Providence also produced four individual champions, but SOU had one more finalist than the Argos with Emma Baertlein (110), Marissa Kurtz (117), Quilaztli Miguel-Lapham (160) and Lillian Gradillas-Flores (180) leaving as runners-up. Malia Welch (124) and Eliza Goodwin (131) clinched All-CCC honors in third place, and Kaylee Annis (124) earned an automatic NAIA Championship qualifying bid by winning a true-fourth-place match.

All eight of the Raiders’ first- and second-place individuals performed true to seeds. Their minor upset of the Argos was completed thanks in large part to Goodwin and 145-pounder Holland Wieber, neither of whom were among the CCC’s top-six in their weight classes entering the tournament. Goodwin, after winning by fall in the consolation semifinals, upset EOU’s No. 3 seed, Anna Rodriguez, with a first-round pin in her third-place match. Wieber provided the biggest points swing in her consolation semifinal with a first-round pin to knock off Providence’s No. 14-ranked Esther Han.

The Raiders padded their point total with 12 total pins compared to Providence’s five. Howard — the No. 7-ranked 117-pounder who joined SOU midseason after becoming a national finalist last year at Texas Wesleyan — was the only wrestler at the tournament with three of them, getting Providence’s No. 11 Alicia Frank in the semis and one of her teammates, Kurtz, in the championship.

Moreno, the three-time national champion, continued her unbeaten season with a technical-fall shutout and two falls. She pinned No. 8 Paige Respicio of Providence in her final.

Dennis also won her final against a teammate, Gradillas-Flores, by tiebreaker criteria in a 6-6 decision. Hingano needed only one win to claim the 207 title, pinning Fernanda Canedo of Westcliff (Calif.) in 1:19.

Goodwin, Gradillas-Flores and Wieber were the only Raiders who didn’t get automatic national qualifying bids, which were allocated based on the number of top-17 wrestlers per weight class. All three are strong candidates to be among 32 recipients of at-large bids, which will be announced Tuesday.

SOU competes at the NAIA Championships March 14-15 in Park City, Kan.