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Murphy cruising, but Phoenix is finding the going tough at Class 3A tournament By DON HUNT Armed with 17 competitors, the Phoenix High wrestling team journeyed to the Class 3A state tournament this weekend optimistic it could take home a second straight title. Now the Pirates are hoping to simply take home a trophy, and there's no guarantee of that. The Pirates have only six wrestlers remaining in the tournament heading into today's action, and 171-pound senior Brian Murphy is their lone hope for an individual state championship. Murphy cruised to a 6-0 victory over Ontario's Bobby King during Friday night's semifinal match after romping past Frank Ewing of Banks, 9-1, in Friday morning's quarterfinal round. However, Chris Vote (130), Ryan Staten (145) and Greg Brown (189) all failed in their bids to make the finals and the Pirates find themselves in fifth place - one spot out of trophy consideration. Burns leads the tournament at Memorial Coliseum with 130.5 points, followed by Estacada (114), Sweet Home (110), Banks (105.5) and Phoenix (99). Coquille is close behind in sixth place with 97 points. "When it became obvious that we probably weren't going to win it as a team, then it just made me work harder and want to win it even more," said Murphy, who hiked his season record to 35-3 with his victory over King. "It's been a goal of mine to win it ever since I took third up here last year." Murphy will face Sweet Home's Mark Helfrich, a 13-5 winner over Mazama's Matt Teeples, in today's 171-pound title match. Helfrich dealt Murphy one of his three defeats, 3-2 at the Oregon Classic in January. "I was hoping to meet him in the state finals and here we are," Murphy said. "I'm ready to wrestle him and see who's the better man." Vote, in only his second year of high school competition, exceeded expectations by winning his first three matches, including an impressive 12-6 victory over Philomath's Sam Iltis in the quarterfinals. But his luck ran out in the semifinals when he got pinned by No. 4 seed Chad McFarland of Madras. Staten also fared well in the early rounds but ran out of energy in his semifinal bout with Sherwood's Seth Roy. Staten grabbed a 2-0 lead but trailed 7-3 after two periods and eventually dropped a 13-7 decision. Brown lost 5-1 to Tony Rolen of The Dalles, who is bidding for his third state title in as many years. Brown didn't go down without a fight, however. Trailing 3-1 with 30 seconds left in the match, he nearly took Rolen down only to get taken down himself in the waning seconds. "Brown had him (Rolen) on his butt, but he didn't clamp him down on his hip and finish his shot," Phoenix assistant coach Joe Hagler said. "But that kid (Rolen) is a big horse." Phoenix has two other grapplers alive in the consolation bracket, 140-pound George Pearce and 160-pound Nick Acord. Pearce pinned his first two opponents before losing 8-6 in the quarterfinals to Siuslaw's Chad Everson. Acord lost his opening match of the tourney but has been a warrior in the consolation rounds, winning three straight. Both Pearce and Acord are alive for third place. "I've wanted my whole life to be a state champion, and that was quite a jolt when I lost my first match up here," Acord said. "But it would be a lot bigger disappointment to go home empty-handed. "Right now third place doesn't seem so bad." Acord suffered a moderate concussion last week in the championship match of the Skyline Conference district meet in Lakeview. He developed a headache and become sick on the way back to Medford. When he got home, he went to the hospital and was given a CAT scan, which revealed the concussion but no other injuries. However, Acord admitted he still doesn't feel quite right. "I'm still getting some headaches, but I'm not using that as an excuse," he said. "I'm coming back (today) and see if I can get third place." Phoenix essentially fell out of championship contention during the opening two rounds Thursday when 12 of its 17 wrestlers lost. If that wasn't bad enough, 160-pound Paul Stierle separated his left shoulder in his first match and was knocked out of the tournament. The Pirates are also having to compete without veteran coach Harry Mondale, who has a blood clot in his left leg and was ordered by his doctor to stay home. But despite the pratfalls, Phoenix remains in the trophy hunt. "Each of our six guys left is a senior," Hagler noted, "and I know what kind of effort they're going to give on their last day of wrestling." Illinois Valley, meanwhile, took only six wrestlers to the tournament but two of them - 152-pound Michael Pagnotta and 215-pound Jon Pope - advanced to the finals. Pagnotta earned a 7-1 victory over Junction City's Erik Nielsen while Pope charged to an 8-0 win over Sweet Home's Dan Brewer during Saturday's semifinal round. Pope ran his season record to 37-0 with 33 pins. North Valley star Brenden McLean also remained unbeaten by earning a 10-4 win over 189-pound defending state champion Abe Ewing. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.