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Raiders' regional success no guarantee By Rich Rosenthal For The Tidings The 2003 winter sports championship season officially kicks off Saturday morning when the Southern Oregon University wrestlers participate in the NAIA Western Regional/Northwest Wrestling Conference championships hosted by Pacific University in Forest Grove. The combined championship events are the precursor to next month's NAIA Championships in Great Falls, Mont., and a warm-up for the final Raider dual-meet of the season, a Feb. 22 clash with fifth-ranked Menlo College that will have national meet seeding implications. Although Southern claimed the first three Northwest conference titles and has staked 16 regional crowns since 1971, another handful of gold is not a sure thing this weekend. SOU missed out on last year's regional title by a matter of four team points, and it ranked behind fellow NAIA area contenders Menlo and Embry-Riddle for much of December. All four Raider national championship runs (1978, 1983, 1994, 2001) were set up by conference or regional success. o Southern Oregon's string of winning seasons, known as "The Streak" on the Ashland campus, started with the 11-2 campaign in 1970-71 and has now spanned the tenure of three different Raider head coaches, seven U.S. presidents and 22 Chicago Cubs managers. In fact, SOU has not had a sub-.500 wrestling dual-meet season record since 1966-67. o Southern Oregon has already qualified a full complement of 12 wrestlers for next month's national meet, but eighth-year head coach Mike Ritchey would like an even bigger selection after the conference and regional dust settles Saturday. Key Raider performers hoping for a top-three finish and subsequent NAIA meet qualification are senior Marc Harris (125), junior Waylon Alsbury (149), freshman James Mannenbach (174), freshman David O'Brien (184) and freshman Colin Davis (197). O'Brien is the Cinderella story of the group. The former Kodiak, Alaska state champion (originally expected to redshirt this year) topped incumbent starter Abe Ewing two straight in best-of-three challenge matches last week, and performed extremely well in two weekend starts: a narrow 6-4 loss against PU third-ranked NCAA Div. II performer Ryan Jones as well as Saturday's win by fall. Jordan Ottow (133), Chris Huntley (165), Colin Murphy (141), Brian Wilson (174), Wes Balensifer (197) and Mike Whitehead (285) attempt to defend conference weight class titles Saturday, while Huntley and Balensifer were the school's 2002 regional champions. This time around, Wilson will compete at 165, while Balensifer moved up to 285. Other members of SOU's travel squad are Nolan Harris (133), Oscar Frias (141), Ryan Presta (157), Jimmy Grochowsky (157), Josh Fitzgerald (174), Colin Davis (197), Grant Thompson (197). Two other travelers will be determined this week. 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 -