North Medford was never threatened in the team competition Thursday due to its dominance in the lightweight divisions, but South Medford still gave its fans something to cheer about with a late surge that was punctuated by a tiebreaker win in the marquee match of the night in the Panthers’ gym.
The seventh-ranked Black Tornado won the opening nine matches of the Southwest Conference dual to take all doubt out of the final outcome, but victories in four of the final five matches allowed the Panthers to save face in a 49-21 runaway win by their crosstown rivals.
“We knew going in that they have the lightweights, we have the heavyweights and matchups are always tough between the two programs,” said South Medford head coach David Bage. “It was good for our seniors to go out well on Senior Night and really get some matches. I know (North Medford’s) trying to get rest for some guys so we’re glad they were able to give us matches at pretty much every weight to do that.”
From 106 pounds through 160, North Medford acted like a buzzsaw in carving up the freshman-heavy South Medford lineup. Earning falls in that span were Alex Silva (106), Jacob Watson (113), Thomas Hamilton (152) and Andres Ramirez (160), while third-ranked senior Chase Mitchell earned a 13-3 major decision at 126 over Killian Cosgrove.
“I was proud of how the guys wrestled,” said North Medford assistant coach Greg Bryant, filling in for head coach Phillip Lopez after being sidelined by a recent post-tournament ejection he’s currently appealing. “We were bumping some guys up due to injuries and moving some guys up from JV to have matches and they all wrestled hard out there.”
South Medford senior Cole Schumack finally broke the drought for his team, trailing 43-0 by the time of his match at 170, with a pin in 2 minutes, 37 seconds over Brady Haas. Ryan Beck followed with a first-round fall over Noah Forester in 1:26 before Thomas Bates broke the string with a pin for North Medford in 1:31 over Jaxin Kinler-Gossman.
With his hope of a rematch against second-ranked Jullian Stone dashed after the Black Tornado opted to bump the junior up to heavyweight, South Medford senior Michael Cormier instead settled for a pin of Isaac Brothers in 60 seconds. Stone earlier this season edged third-ranked Cormier in overtime at 220.
“I was looking forward to wrestling Jullian all day,” said Cormier, “but that’s OK, hopefully I’ll see him again next week (at the SWC district championships).”
Much like Schumack and Beck, Cormier was all business in his approach to his matchup despite the lopsided team score.
“Team points and all that, we’ve had to learn to deal with that over time because of forfeits and all that junk,” he said. “We just look at what we can do when we get out there. I just wanted to get a couple takedowns and handle business. Just get team points and get it done.”
That left the marquee moment of the night for Stone, who has wrestled the past two years at heavyweight despite a large size discrepancy, and South Medford senior Nate Eli, ranked 10th at 285.
For the most part, the match was a study in strength and leverage, with neither wrestler able to budge the other for any notable advantage. Eli scored the first point of the match on a second-round escape, but Stone returned the favor with his own third-period escape to move the match into overtime.
In the one-minute OT, there was no movement by either wrestler and that left it to a pair of 30-second tiebreaker periods. Eli took the down position in the first session and was able to slip out of Stone’s control with 17 seconds on the clock. When they traded places for the final session, Eli leaned heavily on Stone and didn’t give him any room to move to score a 2-1 triumph that capped the night and elicited huge cheers from the South sideline.
“It was high-paced and I knew I had to bring my ‘A’ game to beat him,” said Eli. “(Stone’s) a top-ranked kid and I just had to wrestle hard and wrestle smart and wrestle tough.”
“I don’t want to admit it but I was kind of watching the clock a little bit,” he added of the final tiebreaker period. “I saw 15 seconds roll by and I was like, ‘I’m too good and I’ve put in too much work to let this go.’ This is my Senior Night and I knew I came too far to let him go there.”
For his part, Stone was gracious in defeat. He remained active throughout the match but there was only one time when he truly was able to rock Eli a little off balance, but that moment quickly passed.
“I did everything I could in the match but sometimes weight can get to you,” said Stone, who weighed in at 212 on Thursday to Eli’s 284. “That final rideout, he can get me with that.”
“Nate Eli’s a really good wrestler,” added Stone. “I believe that he’s one of the most underrated heavyweights in the state and I think he’s going to go somewhere this year. What happened in the match is what happened in the match, it sucks for me but going up weight classes can kind of suck sometimes.”
Eli credited Bage, assistant coach Noah Berman and workout partner Cormier for getting him ready for the big matchup.
“Michael and Jullian have their saga but we think Nate and Jullian have their own saga from last year, too,” said Bage. “It was a match we all anticipated and we kind of had a game plan because we’ve seen Jullian a lot through club and spring and summer so we know his style. Nate did a really good job of sticking to our game plan and came out with the win.”
“The heavyweight match was the showdown that we call came to see,” added the South coach. “That’s what we wanted and it was fun. I wish we could’ve created a little bit more offense as a team, so with five practices left (before districts) we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Another big win Thursday came from North Medford’s Tanner Gaoiran at 145, where he shook off a 4-3 deficit to surge in the third round for a 9-5 decision over South senior Josh Beachler.
“It’s nice to have him come back from a knee injury in football season and come out late and wrestle so well,” said Bryant, who also formerly served as South’s head coach. “He also really helped us out at the Oregon Classic. That was a neat thing to see a freshman go out there and compete with varsity guys when we weren’t sure how he was going to do.”
TEAM SCORE: North Medford 49, South Medford 21.
*106 — Alex Silva, NM, pinned Aidan Rania, 4:41; 113 — Jacob Watson, NM, pinned Faith Hansel, :43; 120 — Enrique Jaime, NM, won by forfeit; 126 — Chase Mitchell, NM, major dec. Killian Cosgrove, 13-3; 132 — Benjamin Zeigler, NM, dec. Chase Imus, 4-0.
138 — Cole Zoller, NM, dec. Andrew Hall, 4-2; 145 — Tanner Gaoiran, NM, dec. Josh Beachler, 9-5; 152 — Thomas Hamilton, NM, pinned Wyatt Rasor, :25; 160 — Andres Ramirez, NM, pinned Justin Josephson, 2:48.
170 — Cole Schumack, SM, pinned Brady Haas, 2:37; 182 — Ryan Beck, SM, pinned Noah Forester, 1:26; 195 — Thomas Bates, NM, pinned Jaxin Kinler-Gossman, 1:31; 220 — Michael Cormier, SM, pinned Isaac Brothers, 1:00; 285 — Nate Eli, SM, dec. Jullian Stone, 2-1 TB.
* starting weight
Reach reporter Kris Henry at 541-776-4488, khenry@mailtribune.com, www.facebook.com/krishenryMT or www.twitter.com/Kris_Henry