Johnson
Sarah Holgen
Taylor Johnson, right, is one of six Raiders still alive after the first day of the NAIA Wrestling Championships in Topeka, Kan.

Raiders in fourth, Gutches in semis after Day 1 of NAIA Championships

3/7/2014 9:18:00 PM

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TOPEKA, Kan.Brock Gutches (Central Point, Ore./Crater) is within two wins of becoming the 26th three-time titlist in NAIA wrestling history, and five other Raiders have locked up All-American status after the first of two days at the NAIA Championships.


Southern Oregon University's 174-pound junior had his way again Friday inside the Kansas Expocentre, defeating Oklahoma City's Jared Lass by fall in his first match and Indiana Tech's LJ Grayson by technical fall in the quarterfinal round.

Gutches will see second-ranked Jimmie Schuessler of Grand View (Iowa), last year's champion at 165 pounds, in the semifinals. The championship round is scheduled to begin Saturday at 5 p.m. Pacific Time, and a pass to watch live can be purchased here.

An otherwise rocky quarterfinal round wrecked the Raiders' hopes for a team title, but nine of their 10 representatives registered victories to score 47.5 team points, lodging them in a fourth-place tie with Lindsey Wilson (Ky.). Top-ranked Grand View (113 points), poised to win its third straight championship, is well ahead of second-place Great Falls (51) and third-place Montana State-Northern (50) – meaning SOU's fifth runner-up finish in six years is well within reach.

Four Raiders reached the quarters before falling: 125-pounder Jacob Stigall (Hubbard, Ore./North Marion), 149-pounder Tyler Cowger (Sweet Home, Ore./Sweet Home), 184-pounder Jacob Abrams (The Dalles, Ore./The Dalles-Wahtonka) and 197-pounder Taylor Johnson (Redmond, Ore./Redmond). All four rebounded with consolation wins and will be in the consolation quarterfinals of their respective brackets.

Heavyweight Clayton Burtis (Colton, Ore./Colton) isn't done either. He bounced from a loss in his first match with consecutive consolation wins against Midland's Lonnie Brown (8-3), Waldorf's Angel Gomez (6-4) and Morningside's Tyler Kacmarynski (sudden victory).

Johnson, who was No. 2 in the final rankings, started his day with 15-2 drubbing of York's Logan Paul Eickoff and a 3-2 decision over Life's Jacob Dempsey. He was pinned in the first round by Dickinson State's Jesse Hellinger, then took his consolation by 9-0 major decision against Bethany's Taylor Baird and can still improve on his fifth-place finish of 2013.

Abrams will also be a repeat All-American but had to knock out teammate Tucker Van Matre (Kodiak, Alaska/Kodiak) in his consolation by 5-3 decision to move on. He was victorious by decision in the first round against Baker's John Hambleton and by technical fall against Waldorf's Brock Binversie, and lost a quarterfinal to Life's Trey Hicks, another returning All-American.

Stigall, a freshman, won twice to reach the quarterfinal – against Waldorf's Bo Bettison (10-6) and Baker's Alan Callahan (10-2) – and Cowger, another freshman, got there by sudden victory over Missouri Valley's Jake Ekster. Both were directed out of the championship bracket via pins. Stigall came back with a major decision of Missouri Valley's Ryan Stearns, and Cowger ended the day by topping Menlo's Jason Ladd, 2-0.

Van Matre, 141-pounder Johnathon Gay (Clovis, Calif./Clovis) and 165-pounder Garrett Urrutia (Lebanon, Ore./Lebanon) pitched in with one consolation win apiece.

Gutches is now 11-0 in his career at the NAIA Championships with six pins. He finished off Lass in 2:42 and wrapped up his technical fall against Grayson in 5:27 with the score 18-1.

All five of the other defending national champions at the tournament also remain in the hunt to repeat. Grand View has nine wrestlers remaining in the championship brackets, while Great Falls, MSU-Northern and Lindsey Wilson have two apiece.

Wrestling will resume Saturday at 8 a.m. Live scoring can be found here.
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