Olympians' R.J. Peña continues his success with a pin Thursday

BILL POEHLER
Statesman Journal
January 25, 2008

Cory Ellison did something Thursday night that few have.

He went more than a round against R.J. Peña.

When anyone faces the two-time state champion junior from Sprague High School, the inevitable happens and Peña pins them.

"I was trying, man," Peña said. "He was really flexible. He would not get pinned. He fought really hard. It's one of the toughest fighting opponents I've had in Oregon so far. I think everyone else I've pinned in the first round."

Peña's pin, which came in 3:29, was one of four by the Olympians, and they held off a West Salem charge on the road to gain the 34-30 Central Valley Conference dual meet win.

"He's a good kid," West Salem coach John O'Dell said. "He's going to be a good one for us. R.J. is going to be down at 140 and Cory won't be.

"We're excited, I think we've got a really good, young team. We might not have the greatest dual team in the world because we have some young kids down there in the lower weights, but we have a really good tournament team. We're expecting good things come districts."

West Salem has drawn closer to Sprague during the years, but the sixth-year school has yet to get over the hump of beating the top wrestling team in town.

"Yes, they are," Sprague coach Kary Hadden said. "They went tough with Redmond. They went 33-30, I think it was, with Redmond. It's going to be a fight. Right now, hopefully our depth is going to help us out. Our JV's did real well tonight, I was happy with that."

Both teams head to the Reser's Tournament of Champions today and Saturday at Westview.

In a match between last year's district champions, West Salem's Tyler Steele picked up a 9-1 major decision against Sprague 's Adam Peulen at 215 pounds.

"Especially earlier in the year, he beat me at heavyweight when I was wrestling ... at the Coast Classic," Steele said. "To get him back feels really good.

"It feels really good to beat another good guy like that."

In a key match at 140 pounds, Sprague junior Tyson Giza trailed most of the match to West Salem's Matthew Feltz before scoring on an escape in the third round then scoring a takedown with eight seconds left to get a 3-2 decision.

"Giza beat Matthew Feltz there at the end, that was the big difference in the match," O'Dell said. "Props to Tyson, he did a good job. They wrestled great and it was a good competition."

Sprague scored a pin by junior Alex Kostenborder against freshman Billy Endicott in 57 seconds at 112 pounds.

"Mostly in all the conference matches, I try to get a pin as fast as I can," said Kostenborder, a state runner-up last season. "I expect a pin in the first round. The kid was pretty strong, at first I was pretty frustrated."

Sprague also got pins by freshman Jordan Giza at 125 against Steven Grunig in 3:24 and at 152 pounds, Bryce Whitehead pinned John Herring in 5:05.

West Salem got pins by Cody Peterman against Chance Newkirk at 171 in 1:12, and Alex Elder in 3:24 against James Peurini at 125.

West Salem sophomore Blake Borsberry led Yulerik Sorensen 5-0 in the second round, before Sorensen scored a takedown and near fall to tie the match at 5-5 going to the third period.

Borsberry scored a takedown late for the 7-6 decision.

"I was doing a move that I only practiced a few times, but I threw it in this match and he caught me," Borsberry said.

Other West Salem winners were Devan Petansky at 103 pounds, Eric Chandler at 160 and Trent Gallegos at 285. Sprague 's other winners were Tyler Spragg at 119 and Colin Mitchell at 189.