The print., January 18, 1984, Page 7, Image 7

Sports
Owings knows what it takes to be champion
Even if he wanted, Larry
Owings couldn’t shake his
past. People still ask ques­
tions, and in wrestling circles
he is still regarded as a sort of
hero. Many remember him on­
ly as the guy who beat Olym­
pic wrestling champion Dan.
Gable. But Owings is content
to leave past glories behind
and go on with life as a father,
teacher, and assistant wrestl­
ing coach at Clackamas Com­
munity College.
It’s been two decades
since Owings began his wrestl­
ing career, a career that
brought him to the nation’s
headlines in 1970 after lie pin­
ned the undefeated Gable to
claim the NCAA national
championship at 142 pounds.
Although he did not win
another national title while at
the University of Washington,
he placed second twice before
the competition in 1972. He
has amassed an astounding
career record of 322 wins, 20
losses, and one tie in two state
high school championships,
three Pacific 8 conference
championships, two national
Wrestling Federation titles as
well as his NCAA ac­
complishments.
Owings was born in
Oregon City and grew up near
Hubbard with four older
brothers and two sisters. He
was met with a challenge at an
early age that motivated him
to his future successes. All
four brothers held state titles
while wrestling at Canby High
School, their full tally being
eight championships. Owings
said that he “just naturally fell
into their steps.”
“My older brothers
always gave me a bad time and
in fact, they spread the rumor
that they had a brother coming
up who wouldn’t be a
wrestler,” he said. As a matter
of sibling rivalry he set out to
prove them wrong. A rocky
freshman year in high school
was almost his undoing until
his coach helped him conquer
what Owings termed a lack of
confidence.
“I kind of owe my wrestl­
ing career in a way to my high
school coach, Larry Wright,”
Owings said.
The match with Gable,
which ended in a 13-11 deci­
sion, has been called the
greatest match in college
wrestling history. It was the
unseating of a three-time na­
tional champion with a 181-0
record by a relatively
unknown wrestler. It’s also
what Owings must tell about
most often. But he now seems
quite unmoved by it.
“I don’t really look back
at it and think about it that
often,” he said. “It’s kind of
hard for me to look back and
think of it as a glorious thing.
It was very glorious but I guess
it’s difficult for me to accept
that.”
Although it’s an accepted
assumption that Owings could
have qualified for the 1972
Olympic team, he didn’t try
out. The fact that he didn’t is
puzzling to some, but Owings
cites personal reasons for not
doing so.
“I didn’t go (to the Olym­
pics) in ’72 because after eight
years of solid wrestling I was
kind of burned-out, and plus I
just graduated from college
and didn’t have a job. I had a
wife to support and a baby to
be born any day so that was
another consideration,” he
said.
“I can provide the
coaching and the technique
and on-the-mat experience,”
he said of his role at the Col­
lege. “I’ve been in national
competition before, I know
what It takes.”
“I just can’t seem to stay
away from it,” Owings said.
FORMER NATIONAL CHAMP— Larry Owings is considered
by many to be Oregon’s greatest wrestling product. Owings now
channels his energies into helping Norm Berney develop this
school’s young wrestlers.
Clark College defense crosses up Kiser 's crew
By Doug Vaughan
defense,” Kiser said. “It has
to be tenacious. When you
play good defense, it allows
you to stay in the game even if
your offense is not
producing.”
Of The Print
Coach Royce Kiser’s team
went to Clark Community
College hoping to get revenge
after losing to the Vancouver,
Wash., team by five points
earlier in the season. Their
hopes were not fulfilled as the
Clackamas Community Col­
lege Cougars dropped the
game, 107-94.
“We played very well but
we had a 6 minute period in
the latter first half which
enabled them to gain a ten
point lead, and we never could
catch up,” Kiser said.
The problems for the
Cougars came when Clark
switched from a man-to-man
to a zone defense, Kiser said.
Along with the switch in
defense was a switch into a
zone-trap press.
“The switches took time
to adjust to. Sometimes it
takes a minute or two and that
can be the game,” the coach
said. “Once they built the lead
up, that was the ball game.”
Bob Nippert led the
Cougars with a 26 point ef­
fort, even though he hit only 6
of 18 shots from the field. The
sophomore forward made up
for it at the line, hitting 12 of
14. He also added five re­
bounds.
Assistant Coach Paul
Fiskum noted the play of Mike
Wednesday, January 18, 1984
With a lead of eleven at
the intermission, Clark con­
trolled the tempo in the second
half, but never pulled away.
The Cougars cut the lead to
eight at one point, but let it
slip to 18 at another.
“It was basically a
10-point game the second half.
The 13 points they won by was
because we had to go for the
ball and committed some
fouls,” Kiser said.
The Cougars tried
everything they could in the se­
cond half, but Clark, playing
with extreme confidence after
two consecutive 20-plus point
wins over Mt. Hood and
Chemeketa Community Col­
lege, would not budge.
“We threw everything at
them to cut the lead, but they
adjusted to everything,” Kiser
said. “You name it, we did it,
but we could not overcome the
ten point lead.”
Kiser also noted the play
of the Cougar backcourt in
breaking the press, with a
special note to point guard
Doug Coffman. “Even
though their (Clark) guards
played better than ours, I still
think they did an exceptional
job,” Kiser said.
The Cougars next com­
petition will be against the
junior varsity squad from
Lewis and Clark College, at
home tonight, with tipoff at 7
p.m.
Royce Kiser
Peregrin, who gave his
strongest performance of the
season. Peregrin poured in 18
points while collecting 12 re­
bounds to anchor the front­
court for Clackamas.
As a team, the Cougars
shot a healthy 81 percent from
the line hitting 17 of 21.
Despite only connecting on 12
of 43 attempts from the field
in the first half, the Cougars’
second half surge in offense
brought their mark up to 42
percent.
Kiser thought that the
Cougars’ offense in the second
half was excellent, but their
defense did not allow them to
catch up.
“We have to play better
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