Conover wins state
wrestling at 135
Gives Wood River
its tenth state title
The Conover
freight train pulled in and pulled off a rare state championship Saturday.
Wood River
High School junior Matt Conover rode and rode his purple-haired Kellogg
opponent for nearly an entire round, then Matt used a double-leg takedown
to win his first State 3A prep wrestling title.
Conover,
nearly pinned early and trailing 7-3 after one round, battled back and
beat top-seeded Kellogg senior Alan Plank 9-7 in overtime of the 135-pound
championship match.
Wood River
coach Danny Turner said, "It was a great shot—a patented Conover
freight-train double leg takedown. Real exciting."
Conover
(28-3, 71-32 career) won four matches during the three-day, 45th annual
Idaho State 3A Wrestling Championships to give Wood River the tenth state
wrestling title in the school’s mat history.
Meanwhile,
Wood River senior Brian Squires (37-9, 100-25 career) wrapped up fourth
place in the 152-pound class with four pins. Squires finished the season
with 30 pins.
It was a
good state meet.
Strong in
the upper weights, Sugar-Salem (230.5 points) improved from second place
last year and won its ninth state wrestling title by nearly 100 points
over Snake River (135). The Diggers had three first places and two
seconds.
Sawtooth
Central Idaho Conference king Declo (100 points) was fourth of 27 schools—leading
a parade of four SCIC teams into the top ten. Gooding was fifth, Buhl
seventh and Kimberly 10th. Wood River (46) placed 19th.
Besides
Conover, the SCIC produced three winners, all top seeds. In fact, 10
top-seeded wrestlers prevailed in the 14 3A classes, with Conover becoming
one of only three #2-seeded matmen to take gold.
They were
Declo’s #1-seeded 103-pounder John Clark (40-0), who snapped off four
pins in five minutes of mat time; Gooding’s #1-seeded junior Travis
Stone (31-1) at 125; and top-seeded Declo senior Ian Webb (34-5), four
pins at 171.
State summary
135
pounds: Second-seeded Conover started his third state meet with 6-3
and 12-5 decisions over Teton junior Clint Allen and Timberlake senior
Mark Barnhouse.
"Matt’s
first match was a lot closer than the 6-3 score showed," said Turner.
In the
semi-finals, Conover was awarded a caution point that provided him with a
4-3 victory over South Fremont senior Greg Packer (25-9), the eventual
fourth-place wrestler.
Three false
starts led to a tough defeat for Packer.
Turner
said, "It was crazy. Right off the bat the Packer kid got his first
caution after he faked a shot without the ref starting the match in the
first round. Then Packer got his second caution, starting too early while
on top of Matt.
"It
was scoreless in the first. Matt likes to stay away and Packer had a
similar style.
"Matt
got an escape and takedown to lead 3-2 going into the third, then Packer
escaped for a 3-3 tie. We were totally content with a tie and wrestling
into overtime, in fact, I told Matt to circle around in the final seconds
of the third.
"But
with just three seconds left Packer faked a shot before the ref blew his
whistle, which was his third caution and that meant a point for
Matt."
Conover’s
championship opponent Plank was a leg rider, Turner said, but the coach
convinced Matt to stay with what brought him to the final.
"Don’t
change anything now," Turner said.
Conover led
3-2 with the first takedown and an escape, then he survived a scary moment
when Plank took him down and put Conover on his back. "Matt scrambled
and scrambled and got out of the first round behind 7-3," Turner
said.
Slowly but
surely Conover battled back, taking Plank down twice and tying it 7-7.
"The
Kellogg kid took down for the third, and I asked Matt if he wanted to let
him get up and give up a point. Matt said no, he wanted to ride him out.
It’s hard to ride a kid for two minutes—they give you a point for
doing that in college—but Matt just gutted it out.
"In
overtime Matt took a great shot early, but his toe was on the line,
out-of-bounds. Then they got back in the middle of the mat and he just
drives in on the kid for the winning points."
Conover had
placed sixth at state at 112 pounds in 2000 but he exited early with two
wins and two losses at 119 in 2001.
152
pounds: Three-time district champion Squires stumbled only twice at
state—the first time to the eventual state champion, the second time to
the top-seeded wrestler.
Bonners
Ferry senior Mike Gross (31-4), the only unseeded wrestler to win a 3A
title Saturday, outwrestled Squires 19-6 and then won a pair of thrilling
one-point decisions, 3-2 over #1-seeded Andy Gerber of Snake River and 8-7
in double OT over #3 Dallan Wilding of Sugar-Salem.
Squires had
beaten Gross 12-6 for third place at 140 in 2001.
"This
year Gross was much stronger, a great wrestler on his feet," Turner
said. "Brian just couldn’t take him down, which meant we had to go
to a tactic we didn’t want to use, the throw. Gross just dominated, with
eight takedowns."
Highlight
of state for #4-seeded Squires, who pinned three opponents in the first
round, was his 2:24 pin of Marsh Valley senior Jake Burmester (33-4) in
the consolation semi-finals.
Second-seeded
Burmester had nipped Squires twice this season, at Challis and Gooding. At
state after a scoreless first round, however, Squires escaped, took down
Burmester, cradled him up and pinned.
"What
a time for Brian to step up and get into the medal round!" said
Turner.
After
beating Burmester, Squires lost 7-2 to Snake River junior Gerber (32-10)
in the third-place match. "Gerber just beat us on our feet,"
Turner said. "But Brian had a successful career and a great year. He’s
one of the better Wood River wrestlers ever."
The other
two Wood River wrestlers at Nampa were:
130
pounds: Sophomore Chris Vert (15-20) opened up his first state meet
with a third-round pin of Bonners Ferry sophomore Will Winn—and then
Chris ran into a couple of tough cookies.
Vert fell
in a second-round pin to eventual state runner-up Jed Crittenden (22-5), a
South Fremont sophomore who now has a pair of state silver medal finishes.
Declo senior Tyler Dschaak (25-8) decisioned Vert 18-5 en route to sixth
place in the 130-pound class.
Turner
said, "Chris got a second chance, getting into state as the fourth
place wrestler and then winning a match at state. That’s quite an
accomplishment."
171
pounds: Junior Casey Markwell (9-23) lost his two matches in his first
state meet. "Casey had a good season and now knows what it’s like
to be at state," said Turner.
Wrestlers
from 95 Idaho schools competed. In other divisions:
Skyline of
Idaho Falls (199.5 points) captured its first state title since 1982 over
Centennial (167) in 5A; Sandpoint (292) won its second straight 4A title
and fifth overall;
And Challis
(259 points) cleaned up in 2A, earning the school’s first-ever state
banner by over 100 points over Malad (146.5) and three-time defending
champ North Fremont (141.5). North Fremont had won seven championships in
nine years.
Wood River state
champs
2002—Matt
Conover, 135
2001—Cory
Goicoechea, 171
1999—Cory
Goicoechea, 152
1990—John
Pascoe, 130
1983—Don
Davies, 188
1983—Rob
Miller, 158
1977—John
Shay, 155
1974—Rocky
Sherbine, 112
1973—Rocky
Sherbine, 98
1967—Carson
Duffy, 167