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Phoenix continues its district domination Despite late start, Pirate wrestler Ryan Staten gets a trip to state meet By Don Hunt LAKEVIEW - Ryan Staten is trying to make up for lost time. The talented Phoenix High wrestler will head up to the Class 3A state tournament in Portland on Thursday with just 13 matches under his belt, the result of being ineligible for the first two months of the season. Staten won all three of his matches and registered a pair of falls to win the 145-pound title at the Skyline Conference district tournament at Lakeview High this weekend. Staten took fourth at the state tourney a year ago and is considered one of the Pirates' most athletic grapplers. "He's got great mat sense and he's a tough kid," Phoenix assistant coach Joe Hagler says of Staten. "The question mark is his conditioning. We'll see what happens in Portland." Staten became ineligible after flunking his English class last spring. "It was my first-period class and I didn't make it there very much," he admits. "And then I started running around with the wrong crowd." Staten cleaned up his act in the fall, however, and has been working out with the wrestling team since the start of the season in November. "This is what I've been pointing towards all along," he says, meaning the district and state tournaments. "I'm going to work out really hard this week and see what I can do up there (in Portland)." It isn't often that a first-year wrestler at the high school level can manage a winning record, let alone qualify for the state tournament. Mazama's Skyler Massey is the exception. The big junior charged through the heavyweight division at the district tournament, posting a pair of falls before dropping a dramatic 3-2 double overtime decision to Illinois Valley's Chris Strand in the title match. Massey's season record is 22-3. "He has great balance for a big kid and he just has a lot of natural ability," Mazama coach Scott Teeples says. "He still makes mistakes that more experienced wrestlers don't make, but it's pretty amazing what he's done." Teeples believes the 6-foot, 240-pounder can place high at next weekend's Class 3A state tournament and possibly make a run at the state title. "I'm confident he'll win some matches," Teeples says. Massey has benefitted from having a good workout partner in Brian Peterson, another junior who wound up third in the district meet. "Peterson was toying with him at the start of the season," Teeples says, "but then over the Christmas holidays things started to change." Illinois Valley's Jon Pope has the distinction of being the only unbeaten wrestler in the Skyline Conference. Pope ran his record to 33-0 this weekend with four victories at the district tournament, culminating with a fall over North Valley's Brandon Rankin in the 215-pound championship match. Pope registered first-round falls in all four of his matches, three of them in 30 seconds or less, and was named the tournament's MVP. "I've gotten a lot stronger in the last year," says Pope, who finished third at district and seventh at state in 2001 while competing at 189. Pope's favorite sport is football, but his senior season ended almost as soon as it began when he broke his left leg in the Cougars' second game. Thinking his injury was a pulled muscle, Pope practiced the following week and started the next game against North Valley. "But then I stepped on it wrong and that was it," he says. Pope was able to come back for Illinois Valley's final game, registering 13 tackles in a loss to Hidden Valley. A running back and linebacker with good speed (he's run the 40 in 4.56 seconds) and great strengh (he's bench-pressed 360 pounds and hoisted 485 on the squat rack) Pope is being recruited by Western Oregon and Linfield but may walk on at Oregon. "I've wanted to play for the Ducks ever since I was a little kid," the 6-foot-1, 212-pounder says. "That's been a dream of mine for a long time." Next weekend in Portland, Pope hopes to put a state wrestling championship on his resume. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.