CORVALLIS – If Sunday’s Civil War was the rivalry’s finale, it was certainly a dramatic way to finish.
After Oregon sophomore Zach Frazier fought back to win his match 7-4, fellow sophomore Ron Lee stepped onto the mat. If he earned a major decision – a win by 8 points or more – Oregon could win.
A minute and 16 seconds into the first round, Lee was pinned, the Beaver fans at Gill Coliseum erupted, and the meet was over. Oregon State 22, Oregon 13.
“This is what the sport’s about,” Oregon head coach Chuck Kearney said. “We’re glad that we were able to make it competitive, but unfortunately we couldn’t get it done.”
Oregon (10-13, 1-9 Pacific-10 Conference) and Oregon State (10-8, 7-3 Pac-10) have both finished their conference dual meet seasons. The next time Oregon takes the mat will be at McArthur Court for the Pacific-10 Championships starting on March 2.
Whether or not this 135th matchup will be the final Civil War wrestling meet, the celebration hosted by the Beavers served as a strong reminder of the long history of the rivalry – and wrestling’s strength in the state. Nine of Oregon’s 10 wrestlers Sunday are natives of the state of Oregon; add in four Beavers from the state, and the Civil War was a very local affair.
The 184-pound class was the first of the afternoon, and walk-on senior Marcus Myers did well to survive all three rounds against the Beavers’ Neal Beaudry, a senior who earned a 16-5 victory for Oregon State. 197-pound junior Shaun Dee had the match tied early in the third period, but couldn’t fight out of a takedown late to make a run, losing 5-3.
In the heavyweight match, Oregon redshirt freshman Charlie Alexander had to stop three times in the third period to clean up a cut. Despite a late scramble, Alexander lost 5-2.
Senior Joey Lucas scored Oregon’s first win of the afternoon, earning the majority of the riding time on Oregon State junior Jake Gonzales to win 6-1. Redshirt junior Ryan Dunn nailed six takedowns en route to an 18-8 major decision victory. Oregon State junior Heinrich Barnes almost let Oregon junior Cody Moulton back in with a shot late, but the Duck still lost, 9-5. Senior Elliott Tracy lost his match, but Kyle Bounds won his, and Oregon was down just six points in the meet with two matches remaining.
Zack Frazier impressed his coach once again, showing the sort of heart that Kearney said he hopes to see out of his entire team. “Zack Frazier epitomizes what Oregon wrestling is about,” Kearney said. Frazier’s match went into the third round tied 4-4, and starting from the bottom position, the sophomore worked to stand out and earn an escape, which he followed up with a takedown landed by sheer determination.
“I just knew he was getting tired halfway through, so I pushed hard to finish it off,” Frazier said. “I don’t like finishing matches by having to stay on my feet and win by one.”
Frazier’s win brought the meet to a total score of 16-13 with one match remaining, but the pinfall against Lee sealed the dramatic win for Oregon State.
Wrestlers refusing to give in
“We owe it to the young men in this program to continue to coach them every day in practice, to get better and come out and compete,” Kearney said when asked about focusing on the wrestling program’s future. “We owe it to the people of the state. This is a wrestling state.”
The history of the Oregon-Oregon State rivalry was recognized Sunday afternoon. Dozens of former Duck and Beaver wrestlers and coaches were among the season-high 1,852 person crowd at Gill, and recognizing all of them at halftime – with Olympians, coaches, conference and national champions in the ranks – added nearly half an hour to the intermission.
“It’s neat seeing the people that had wrestled in the past and they’re a little bit of the forgotten group,” Kearney said. “When you discontinue a program, what you’re doing is eliminating the people in the program currently, the people who had been in the program in the past.”
Before Saturday night’s Oregon men’s basketball game at McArthur Court, the Oregon wrestlers – along with others from the Save Oregon Wrestling campaign – took to University Street in force in the Merry Pranksters’ bus “Furthur,” which belongs to the Kesey family. Famed author Ken Kesey is not only an Oregon alumnus, but also a former Duck wrestler. Former Oregon coach Ron Finley (who first wrestled at Oregon State) was involved Saturday, and hopes the team gathered more support for their campaign.
“It was fun, we got some attention, we talked to a lot of fans,” Finley said. “Hopefully we picked up some support.”
[email protected]