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What a week for Raiders; cream rising to the top Commentary by Joe Zavala Boomer's coming, the women are going and the wrestling team has arrived. What a week for Southern Oregon University athletics. The fun started Wednesday when Boomer Marshall, the all-everything quarterback who set pretty much every major Southern Oregon Conference passing record in four glorious years at South Medford High, kept a promise he made with Raider head football coach Jeff Olson months ago and verbally committed to SOU. All Marshall did at South was complete 504 of his 813 passes for 7,302 yards and 69 touchdowns in an offensive scheme strikingly similar to the one the Raiders run. Then, on Saturday, the third-ranked Southern Oregon wrestling team won four weight divisions and placed 14 grapplers overall to capture the team title at the Northwest Wrestling Championships in Forest Grove. Ryan Presta (157), Wes Balensifer (285), Chris Huntley (165) and Brian Wilson (165) each left Pacific University with individual titles, and Raider coach Mike Ritchey nabbed the regional coach of the year award for good measure. If the week would have ended there, it would have gone down as a pretty good one for the SOU athletic department. But the Raider women's basketball team took it to another level Saturday night with a 72-65 win over Albertson that clinched the team's second Cascade Conference regular season championship and a berth in the NAIA Division II national tournament. When it was over, in a scene overflowing with symbolism, the Raiders' six seniors along with the coach that brought them together so quickly, Kevin Wilson, took turns cutting down the championship net. Wilson may just be the feel-good story of the year for Ashland. In a year and a half at SOU, he's led the Raiders to two national tourney berths, 27 Cascade Conference victories (against just five losses) and the aforementioned regular season title. Not bad for a coach who only a year and a half ago took over a team built like a tank and proceeded to drive it like a Lamborghini. ****** So here we are, just weeks away from the end of the winter sports season, and finally the local postseason picture is starting to clear up. Here's how they stack up. Contenders: 1. The Ashland High girls basketball team. I know, I know, they were worked by Roseburg last week and have yet to really take off, but something about this group makes me believe they'll turn it on come playoff time. This week is crucial. If the Grizzlies can beat streaking Crater tonight (at Crater) and North Medford on Thursday (at home), they'll finish No. 2 in the Southern Oregon Conference. That would put them one home playoff win away from the Class 4A state tournament, where anything can happen. 2. The SOU women's basketball team. Yeah, they were good last year, but not that good, and besides, you can't run and gun your way to a league title, right? Wrong. The Raiders have proven that last year was no fluke and Wilson's tough preseason schedule - which seemed risky in November - has paid huge dividends in February. This team will probably roll to a Cascade Conference tournament title and, with all those seniors, may do something special at nationals. 3. Arron Nelson and the Ashland High boys 400-yard freestyle team. Both are headed to state this weekend, although Nelson, a junior, figures to have a better chance to place individually in the 50 and 100 free than as a member of the relay squad. He enters the fracas with the third best qualifying time in the 50 (22.05) and the seventh best time in the 100 (48.99). The 400 relay team had the slowest qualifying time in the 18-team field, but that may prove deceiving because it wasn't pushed in the SOC district meet. 4. The Raider grapplers. Surprise, surprise, Ritchey has once again put together a team that could bring home a national championship. SOU fans will have one more chance to see this bunch Saturday night, when the Raiders take on fifth-ranked Menlo (Calif.) in what promises to be an entertaining home sendoff. Southern, which had eight wrestlers ranked in the top-seven of their weight class heading into regionals, has already clinched its 33rd consecutive winning season - an NAIA record. Works in progress: 1. The AHS boys basketball team. If this team could win a close game against somebody other than Eagle Point, it would be in the playoff hunt right now. Still, you can't help but feel good about the direction of the program under first-year head coach Rick Cornelius. Prediction: Playoffs in 2004. 2. SOU men's basketball team: Nine of this team's 14 players are underclassmen, and three of those are redshirt freshmen. This is the definition of a "work in progress." Said senior guard Zac Olson, who will assist head coach Brian McDermott next year: "� I'm going to see all of these kids develop and it's going to be beautiful by the time it's done." Joe Zavala is the Tidings' sports editor LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -