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SATURDAY December 6, 2003 - Subscribe - Contact Us Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels November 21, 2003 Time to test the waters By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings The Southern Oregon University wrestling team will get a chance to see where it stacks up against some of top grapplers in the western United States this weekend. As an added bonus, they won't have to leave the Rogue Valley to do it. Southern oregon university senior Rick Story (right) works on sophomore teammate Brian Wilson during practice Tuesday at McNeal Pavilion. Wilson, Story and the rest of the Raiders will take part in the Best of the West Open on Saturday. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings The Raiders co-host their 20th annual invitational Saturday at Compton Arena at the Jackson County Expo. It has a new name - Best of the West Open instead of Belcastro Open - to go with its new venue, and will for the first time also feature youth and junior tournaments as well as the traditional college freestyle brackets. Upwards of 1,000 wrestlers will take part in the 14-mat event, which is expected to attract at least 2,000 fans to Central Point. "It's nice to have something like this at the start of the season to judge where you're at," Raider head coach Mike Ritchey said. "I use it as kind of an indicator for what we need to do." Not much, based on last week's rousing start to the 2003-04 season. The seventh-ranked Raiders got things started Friday by storming back from an 18-0 deficit to stun sixth-ranked Menlo, 23-18. Dual-clinching pins from fifth-ranked 197-pound sophomore Grant Thompson and second-ranked heavyweight Wes Balensifer capped off SOU's biggest comeback in over a decade. The Raiders were equally impressive in Pacific University's Boxer Open on Sunday, placing eight, including two champions. The competition will be much stiffer Saturday, however, when the Raiders will be lumped together with wrestlers from Oregon, Oregon State, Portland State, San Francisco State, Menlo, Pacific and several junior colleges. "It's a quality tournament," Ritchey said. It's also a diverse one, with pee wee wrestlers in the youth tournament wrestling alongside high school-age grapplers in the junior tournament. That expansion was less the product of a grand plan, explains Ritchey, than a "comedy of errors." Ritchey wanted to move the tournament from McNeal Pavilion to the much larger Compton Arena after last year's event to better accommodate coaches. When he called to make the reservation, however, he learned that the Eagle Point Youth Wrestling Club had beat him to the punch. That prompted Ritchey to combine forces and bring in added support from Crater High and Club West, a county-wide wrestling club. The result: an event that dwarfs last year's Belcastro Open, which attracted about 320 wrestlers and 1,000 fans. "It's really connected the whole wrestling community together and, selfishly, that was one of my motivations behind it," said Ritchey, a two-time Northwest Conference coach of the year. "A lot of fans in the valley are real aware of what's going on in the high school level and the kids level, but when it comes to the college level they don't quite make that connection sometimes. So, this is an opportunity for kids to see college wrestling and make that connection for themselves, and for fans to hopefully somewhat connect to Southern Oregon University wrestling." Thompson and Balensifer should contend for titles in their respective weight classes. Also for the Raiders, eighth-ranked senior Brian Wilson (165), sophomores Abe Ewing (184), Rick Story (174) and David O'Brien (184) and fourth-ranked 133-pounder Colin Murphy have potential to make solid runs. "Our future lineup for dual meets, that's yet to be determined," Ritchey said. "This is just to go in and wrestle, and everybody's able to wrestle in it so let's see what happens. It's a 100 percent learning experience." The Best of the West Open begins at 9 a.m. Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for students. Kids under 2 get in free. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Road Cams