The Clackamas print., March 12, 2014, Page 7, Image 7

P R IN T : Sports
7
Wednesday, March 12,2014
Wrestlers take home
gold at Nationals
NWAACC
women
The Cougar wrestlers celebrate their third place rank and accept awards fo r the NJCAA wrestling championships.
C J Palmer shows his pride in taking first place in the ‘133 weight class with a “number o ne” hand gesture. Adrian
Salas also took first place in the 184 weight class.
David Beasley
Sports Editor
T h e NJCAA wrestling
championships took place Feb.
27 to March 1 in Spokane,
Wash. Clackamas Community
•College took third place out
of 38 teams with 139 points.
Clackamas was beat out by first
place Northeastern Oklahoma
A & M College with 169 points
and second place -Northwest
College with 149 points.
“Our guys wrestled hard and
we are proud of their efforts,”
stated coach Josh Rhoden.
Clackamas produced a school
record seven All-Americans:
First place in the 133 weight
class CJ Palmer, sixth place at
141 Robbie Rizzolino, fourth
place at 157 Eleazar DeLuca,
third at 165 Kyle Bateman,
first place for 184 Adrian
Salas, third in the 197 divi­
sion Ihoghama Odighizuwa and
at 285 Brandon Johnson took
eighth. The team scored the
most points by a Clackamas
team at the national champion­
ships in school history.
“This year’s performance
set school records in most All-
Americans earned (seven out
of 10) and points scored at the
national championship 139,”
stated Rhoden. “Honestly if I
was told we did both of those
things before we competed the
weekend I would have thought
we won the national champion­
ship. We just found ourselves
in a fight with two other real­
ly good teams. Both of those
teams have a more experienced
group as each graduate seven
of 10 sophomores while we
only graduate two.”
Also earning team points
for the Cougars were Stevan
Knoblauch (125),
Kenny
Martin (149) and Tyler White
(174) all falling one match
short of placement. .
“CJ and Adrian are such
phenomenal talents and both
kids are good enough to go
wherever they choose to con­
tinue the sport and their edu­
cation,” stated coach Rhoden.
“We could not be happier for
the two of them.”
Hall of fame inductees for
the NJCAÀ included the for­
mer Cougar wrestler, profes­
sional mixed martial arts fight­
er and Olympic silver medalist
M att Lindland.
“ T h is y e a r w as a to u g h one
because so many of our guys
did so well and as a team
we did very good but it is
bittersweet because our kids,
staff and program have set the
standard so high that it feels
like a bit of a letdown not to
win the whole thing.” Rhoden
stated. “That .said, we really
enjoyed these guys and our
team accomplished some amaz­
ing things this year. We defi­
nitely have earned the right to
say we are one of the very best
programs in America and a
great destination for wrestling
students”
The Cougar women’s bas­
ketball team recently went to
the NWAACC championships
in Kennewick, Wash. They
took seventh place out of 33
teams, playing four rounds
and only losing the first.
“We played pretty well,”
said Coach Jim Martineau.
“We , lost a tough game to a
good team in the first round,
then bounced back and won
three games in a row and fin­
ished die year on a good note.”
Sophomore point guard
Laci Effenberger scored the
m o s t - ^ p o in t s -in , t h e
to u r n a ­
ment, averaging 28 points per
game and scoring 112 over­
all. Freshman guard Cassidy
Edwards took second in free
throw, scoring 15 out of 16.
Sophomore forward Rebekah
Jamerson held third place in
the tournament for success­
ful blocks with eight total
and averaging two per game.
The team finished 8-4 in the
league.
The men’s team lost their
first two rounds and did not
place in the top bracket. They
lost to Highline and Whatcom,
83-49 and 73-63 respectively.
Grant Sitton placed third in
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w ith
fiv e
overall and 2.5 per game.
— Compiled by Nathaniel Klein
W ashington S tate U niversity
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