The Clackamas print., March 06, 2019, Page 8, Image 8

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SPORTS
‘The
best
team
ever’
CCC WRESTLING TEAM SETS NEW NJCAA RECORD WHILE WINNING THEIR THIRD NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Clackamas Community College’s wrestling team celebrates winning the NJCAA Wrestling Championship on March 2 in
Council Bluffs, Iowa.
BY JA C O B T H O M P S O N
SPORTS EDITOR @SPORTSEDTHOMPS
Clackamas Com m unity College wrestling
captured their third team NJCAA National
C h a m p io n sh ip in school h isto ry in
dominating fashion. The Cougars outscored
second place Northeastern O klahom a
A&M by 24.5 points and set a new NJCAA
scoring record fornational championship
weekend with 176.5,10 points more than
the previous record.
“ This is the best team ever in the history
o f ju nior college w restling. You can ’t
quantify that and when 1 say it, it seems
surreal, but the record shows this is the
best to ever have done it,” Head Coach Josh
Rhoden said about Clackamas setting the
new team scoring record.
Clackam as cam e out o f the national
m eet w ith two individual ch am pions,
141-pounder Elijah Ozuna and 174-pounder
Trajan Hurd.
Ozuna defeated Ellsworth Com m unity
C o lle g e ’ s Z ack D o n ath a n 3-1 in the
cham pionship m atch. Donathan scored
“first, earning one point for an escape, but
Ozuna evened the score w ith an escape
o f his own, then scored two points on a
takedown with three seconds remaining
in the m atch.
Hurd inet Iowa Central’s Ashton Eyler in
the I74~pound final. Hurd scored six points
.parly with a takedown and a near fall. Eyler
was never able to catch up as Hurd won by
a major decision 11-3.
Clackamas Print
“ It w as h o n estly one o f th e b est
experiences I’ve had in my life,” Hurd said
of winning a national championship. “ The
fulfilling of a dream I had as a kid and to
be able to grab it and do it in a big way. It
set m y mind into a bigger perspective on
what I can do in m y lifean d how far I can
take this sport. I’m just glad to have the
opportunity to wrestle for such a program. ”
W ith th e two in d ivid u al n atio n al
ch am pionsh ip s, the Cougars also had
eigh t o f th eir 10 w restlers chosen as
A ll-A m erican s. Ozuna and Hurd made
first-team , 157-pound Joel Romero and
197-pound Joey Daniel won second-team
hon o rs, 125-pound Zeth Brower and
165-pound Mason McDaniel were third-
team All-Am ericans and 133-pound Jason
Shaner and 184-pound Trevor Senn both
received honorable mention spots.
“ I’m super proud of what they do and
how th ey represent the sch o o l,” said
Athletic Director Jim Martineau. “ It’d be
one thing if they were winning a lot and
not graduating kids, but we all keep it in
perspective in the sense that we’re'here
to graduate kids and help them move on
and the fact that they do that and still win
isw hat I’m most proud of. ”
Rom ero and Daniel both finished as
national runners-up. Romero was defeated
by Iowa Central’s Tyree Sutton 6 -2 and
Daniel was beat by Iowa Central’s Ethan
Karsten in a major decision 17-5.
Clackam as ended up placing nine out
o f 10 wrestlers and Rhoden credits that to
helping the Cougars clinch th e national
championship.
“ Those guys cared so much for each other
that they battled back. Only two o f them
really got what they wanted personally,
but every single one of those guys ended
with a win in the medal round,” Rhoden
said. “ So we got seventh instead of eighth,
we got fifthtw ice instead of sixth, we got
third twice instead of fourth. Those guys
fought for their buddies and it was clearly
communicated that that’sw hat they were
doing. ‘It’s not about me anymore’ several
of them said, ‘it’s about the team now.’ ”
M artin M argolis III m issed out on
placing or getting All-Am erican honors,
but Rhoden feels like the grit he showed
w restlin g w ith a dislocated shoulder
exemplifies the drive of the team.
“ [Margolis] dislocated his shoulder and
still tried to wrestle. He had no shoulder
that worked, literally, I’m not just playing
th is up, it ’s not like for the m ovie or
something like th at,” Rhoden said. “ His
shoulder wasn’t going to work and he taped
it and said ‘what am I supposed to do we
want 10 All-Am ericans and no one’s ever
done that before. ’ He went and wrestled in
what we call the ‘blood round’ 30 minutes
after dislocating his shoulder and then he
theclackam asprint.com
dislocated it twice during the match trying
to win it for his team. ”
Clackamas celebrated the school’s third
national title with a team dinner at Texas
Roadhouse paid for by Mason McDaniel’s
grandfather.
“ He said ‘I w ant to take everyone to
dinner, where do you want to go?’ He was
trying to asJk m e all weekend and I was
trying to bide my time and I was saying ‘Are
you sure Mr. McDaniel? You don’t need to
do that’ and he said ‘No, no, I want to take
them out,” Rhoden said.
The Cougars downed steaks and sodas,
yes sodas, as they watched the UFC fights.
“ The guys were eating steaks like they
were kings or something, steaks and sodas
is what they wanted real bad ,” Rhoden
said. “ They cut out soda for so long trying
to maximize their cardio so they were just
smashing as many sweet rolls and sodas
as they could.”
Once dinner was done the team returned
to the hotel banquet room where stories
and memories were swapped.
“ It was a special night that I definitely
won’t ever forget for the rest of m y life,”
Rhoden said. “ That’s what it’s about, when
you think about it, all this other stuff goes
away, we were blessed to get to intersect our
lives with these kids alid it’s the memories
we get to take away that are going to stay
with me until I’m gone.” ,
March 6, 2019