SOU sets new single-season wins record
Published 11:28 am Sunday, February 9, 2025
- Morgan Baird, SOU women's basketball
PRINEVILLE — The No. 9-ranked Southern Oregon men’s wrestling team established a new program record for dual victories in a season with a 30-7 romp over No. 21 Eastern Oregon on Saturday at Crook County High, wrapping its schedule at 19-3.
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The Raiders left no doubt in the “Wagon Tire” rivalry matchup. They ran up 27 points before the Mountaineers collected their first by taking the first seven matchups on the slate.
SOU supplanted the old mark of 18 wins established by the 2008-09 squad that needed only 19 outings to get there en route to a second-place finish at the NAIA Championships.
The Raiders completed a season sweep of EOU and finished 11-1 against Cascade Conference competition. Nine of their wins came against Top 25 teams.
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Four of the first five Raiders on the mat accrued bonus points. Diesel Del Rosario (125 pounds) opened with a major decision, No. 12-ranked Dylan Clark (133) won by technical fall and No. 3 Evan Potter (141) blanked Cole Cross in his 11-0 major.
Following Travis Thorpe’s 8-3 victory over Jaxon Morlan at 149, No. 4 Aaron Gandara wrapped up a shutout technical fall against John Rudebaugh in the third period.
The perfect run continued with decisions from No. 14 Dylan Straley at 165 and Braylin Ruchti at 174.
No. 3 Kyle Knudtson (184) and No. 12 Nico Rodriguez (285) accounted for EOU’s wins, but No. 8 Asher Ruchti (197) split them up by defeating No. 15 Eric Karas in the only Top 25 tilt of the evening.
Gandara, Potter and Asher Ruchti each finished with two-loss dual records.
Women’s Wrestling
SOU 36, EASTERN OREGON 8: At Prineville, both top-20 individual matchups went Southern Oregon’s way and the Wagon Tire stayed in the Raiders’ possession after a dual win against No. 18 Eastern Oregon last Saturday at Crook County High.
SOU (10-3) had a 15-point edge before the action even started thanks to three forfeits. Emma Baertlein and Malia Welch made the lead insurmountable by taking down two of the three ranked individuals in EOU’s lineup.
Baertlein, standing at No. 4 in the 110-pound poll, worked a 13-2 technical fall over No. 16 Nia Avelino. Welch, ranked No. 13 at 124, pulled off a 10-4 upset of No. 9 Kadence Beck.
Holland Wieber, the Raiders’ 145-pounder, accounted for the only pin of the night when she took down Savannah Roblin in the first period. No. 3 Quilaztli Miguel-Lapham (160) and No. 6 Bailey Dennis (180) contributed decisions, outscoring their opponents 14-2 combined. Jade Morales (131) added another.
Men’s Basketball
SOU 83, CORBAN 66: At Ashland, Southern Oregon’s veteran backcourt kept humming last Saturday against Corban, combining for 54 points on 29 shots at Lithia Motors Pavilion.
Gabe Reichle was the headliner with a career-high 25 points — 15 of which he scored in the second half to put the Warriors away — on 7-of-12 shooting with four steals. Elijah Jackson logged 15 points, matched a career-high with seven assists and pulled down six rebounds, and Mason Whittaker went 5-of-10 with 14 points, five boards and two assists.
The Raiders, winners of eight of their last nine, moved to 16-7 overall and 11-6 in the Cascade Conference, ending the weekend in fourth place with five regular-season games remaining.
The Raiders shot 52% from the field, hitting over half of their attempts for the third game in a row, and went 22-of-25 at the free-throw line while stymying Corban (12-12, 10-8) to the tune of 37% shooting. They were down 13-9 early when they constructed a 20-4 run, fueled by 3-pointers from Whittaker and Bryce Dyer and a three-point play from Reichle, and punctuated by an authoritative Liam Clark slam.
Reichle and Whittaker opened the second half with back-to-back 3s, and after a Joe Juhala dunk via Whittaker’s feed the advantage was suddenly 50-30 with 18 minutes remaining.
Dyer recorded seven points, 13 rebounds and four assists, posting a double-digit number on the glass for the ninth time this season. Juhala scored eight points, and Clark came on to chip in nine points on 4-of-7 shooting and five boards.
Women’s Basketball
SOU 70, CORBAN 60: At Ashland, five Raiders scored double-digits as No. 4 Southern Oregon extended its school-record win streak to 23 games.
SOU built a 12-point advantage by the end of the first half and held off Corban (10-14, 8-10) in the fourth quarter to improve to 23-0 overall and 17-0 in the Cascade Conference, ending the weekend as one of two undefeated teams remaining in the NAIA.
The Raiders shot 47% (7-of-15) from 3-point range and scored 17 points off of 15 Corban turnovers. They poured in 42 points combined in the second and third quarters, shooting 61% (17-of-28) from the field during that stretch.
Emma Schmerbach had 14 points on 7-of-11 shooting and nine rebounds, matching her season-high in the latter category. Morgan Baird registered 14 points, four rebounds, and three assists, and Bridgette McIntyre scored 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting from behind the arc.
Meghan McIntyre added 10 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and three steals, and Eliza DiGiulio had 12 points off the bench on 5-of-8 shooting with three assists.
A layup from Corban’s Alyssa Wyllie cut the Raider lead to eight with 7:08 remaining in after trailing by 17 midway through the third. SOU held off Corban the rest of the way by forcing four turnovers, getting back-to-back steals from Meghan McIntyre that she turned into four free throws.
SOU’s magic number to clinch a second straight regular-season title is down to three.