Brackets

The fifth-ranked Southern Oregon wrestling team scored the school's first-ever team championship at the NAIA West National Qualifying Tournament today at Menlo College in Atherton, Calif.

Southern Oregon finished with 151 team points, while fourth-ranked Great Falls finished second with 125.5 points. While the team victory was the first at the Qualifying event, the Raiders have won regional or district titles in the past.

SOU head coach Mike Ritchey was named the West's Coach of the Year.

“I was a little worried going in whether we would be flat or not,” Ritchey said. “But the kids have worked hard all year long to get to this point and they were hungry and got after it. They wrestled smart and I'm proud of how aggressive they were.”

The Raiders placed seven of 12 individuals in the Finals.

Senior Trevor Lofstedt (Roseburg, Ore./Roseburg) (133), junior Barry Johnson (Dayton, Ore./Dayton) (141), senior Seth Roy (Sherwood, Ore./Sherwood) (149), and senior Chase Locke (Tualatin, Ore./West Linn) (197) all won championships

Trevor Lofstedt (Roseburg, Ore./Roseburg), the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler, got the Raiders on the board in the finals with quick 2:42 pin of Montana State-Northern's Colt Heger. Heger upset fifth-ranked Chauncey Phillips of Cal Baptist earlier in the day. Lofstedt's pin the finals was his second straight pin, following a pin of Ryn Luu in the semis.

“Trevor's a gamer,” Ritchey said. “He's managed his injuries well this year and you could tell he was waiting to get to this point. I figured he'd be ready. I told him to go out and do his thing and he did. It was a great performance, I'm proud of him.”

Johnson followed Lofstedt's performance with a 7-3 victory over Cal Baptist's Ethan Hall. Johnson, ranked second in the NAIA, outscored his three foes 31-5 during the tournament.

Roy made it three championships in a row for the Raiders with a 3-1 overtime victory over Montana State-Northern's Jack Goodrich.

Locke had the final championship for the Raiders with a 7-0 victory over Embry-Riddle's Ryan Van Doren.

Freshman Mitchell Lofstedt (Roseburg, Ore./Roseburg) (125), red-shirt freshman Tommie Hooper (Burns, Ore./Burns) (157) and junior John Bates (Oregon City, Ore./Oregon City) (Hwt) all finished second.

Third-ranked Mitchell Lofstedt (Roseburg, Ore./Roseburg) fell to top-ranked Corey Borges 19-3 in championship matgch, while sixth-ranked Hooper dropped a 7-2 decision to third-ranked Rosh Mosher of Great Falls and top-ranked Bates fell 2-1 to second-ranked Arjan Bhullar of Simon Fraser.

SOU will now take 12 wrestlers to the NAIA National Championships on March 5-7.