SPORTS/NEWS
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
herMIsTOnheraLd.cOM • A11
Hermiston’s Colbray headed to NCAA Championships
the other guy. I don’t really think
about my opponent, I just focus on
myself. There is no pressure.”
Colbray’s parents, Delta and
Leroy, were at the Big 12 Tourna-
ment, and already have their reser-
vations for the NCAAs.
“They are my biggest support-
ers,” Colbray said.
Iowa State sophomore will
compete at 184 pounds
By ANNIE FOWLER
STAFF WRITER
There was never a doubt Sam
Colbray would one day punch
his ticket to the NCAA Wrestling
Championships.
One of the most successful and
dominant high school wrestlers in
Oregon history, Colbray qualified
for the NCAAs on Sunday by fin-
ishing second at 184 pounds at the
Big 12 Championships in Tulsa,
Okla.
“It’s exciting,” said Colbray,
who is ranked 10th heading into
the NCAAs. “It was a goal. Com-
ing out of high school, I was a top-
ranked recruit. Our coaching staff
has brought out the best in me.”
The Cyclones were second in
the team standings at the Big 12
tournament with 114.5 points.
Oklahoma State won the title with
158 points.
Iowa State will send nine men
to the NCAA Championships on
March 21-23 at PPG Paints Arena
in Pittsburgh.
Tournament brackets were
released Wednesday, and Colbray,
21, finds himself against a famil-
iar foe in Fresno State’s Jackson
Hemauer. Colbray beat Hemauer
8-7 in a dual on Jan. 13.
Colbray and fellow 2016 Herm-
iston High grad Bob Coleman, who
is at Oregon State, are on opposite
College wrestling is a whole other
beast
Photo courtesy of Iowa state University, File
Iowa State’s Sam Colbray (right) wrestles Fresno State’s Jackson Hemauer in a Jan. 13 match. Colbray won 8-7.
sides of the bracket. In fact, Cole-
man will wrestle the pigtail match
against Chris Kober of Campbell
to get into the 32-man bracket.
Should Coleman win, he would
face top-ranked Myles Martin of
Ohio State.
The top eight in each weight
class at the end of the tournament
will be honored as All-Americans.
A redshirt sophomore, Colbray
opened the Big 12 Championships
with a 7-1 win over Jake Thomp-
son of Air Force. He followed with
an 11-5 decision over Kayne Mac-
Callum of Oklahoma, then beat
Tate Samuelson of Wyoming 5-2
in the semifinals.
Colbray, the top-ranked man at
184, fell to No. 2 Drew Foster of
Northern Iowa, 4-1 in the finals.
Foster had an escape, a take-
down and 2 minutes of riding time
in the match.
Colbray had previously beaten
Foster 8-5 in a Big 12 dual Feb. 21.
“I knew he was tough on top,”
Colbray said of Foster. “I needed
to make a small adjustment. It
came back to bite me.”
Colbray has twice gone to the
NCAAs as a spectator, and says he
doesn’t expect any jitters when it
comes time to step on the mat.
“It’s not much different than
Fargo,” he said. “It’s just you and
Colbray had an impressive port-
folio as he headed to Iowa State.
He was a four-time Oregon
state champion at 195 pounds. He
had a 72-1 combined record his
junior and senior years of high
school. He also was a five-time
Fargo champion, and eight-time
Fargo Junior and Cadet All-Amer-
ican, and a four-time Tri-State
champ.
He redshirted his first year at
ISU, but had a 4-4 record wrestling
as an independent at tournaments.
Last season, he was 15-13 at
197 pounds.
Dropping to 184 this season,
Colbray has had a lot of success.
He is 26-6 overall this year. He
was 13-1 in dual matches, and has
won 13 of his past 16 matches.
“It’s all part of the process,”
said Colbray, who is a pre-med
student. “I had seen people go
through it before. You have to
invest the time and you wait for a
payoff. The start of my collegiate
career wasn’t what I wanted, but
it built me to who I am. It’s just a
matter of when.”
Oregon State Police calls on Legislature for backup
By ANTONIO SIERRA
STAFF WRITER
The long roads of Eastern
Oregon have gotten lonelier
for Oregon State Police over
the past four decades, and
troopers are now lobbying
to reverse the trend.
At a Joint Committee for
Ways and Means hearing in
Pendleton on Friday, several
troopers used their off-duty
hours to tell state legislators
that they needed to commit
to bolstering OSP’s dwin-
dling ranks.
The issue isn’t limited to
Eastern Oregon.
According to OSP Super-
intendent Travis Hampton,
state police employed 624
troopers and sergeants in
1980. But despite experi-
encing steady growth over
the past four decades, the
state’s trooper and sergeant
count has fallen to 381 in
2019.
Compared to other states,
Oregon is far behind the
pack.
A 2016 study comparing
states’ patrol troopers per
100,000 people found that
Oregon was second to last,
leading only Florida in that
statistic.
When local city and
county law enforcement is
included, Oregon is dead
last.
OSP’s long-term attri-
tion has been felt at the local
level as well.
Dain Gardner is a trooper
who works for the OSP Fish
and Wildlife Division out of
the Hermiston worksite.
Gardner told the ways
and means committee that
he’s used to working alone.
“Backup is not a priority
to me because I know I’m
not going to get any,” he
said. “Half the time a radio
doesn’t work, so it does me
no good. I have to just take
care of myself and I’m good
with that.”
But Gardner said he has
trouble working his beat
when he might be the only
OSP trooper on duty on the
Interstate 84 corridor from
Portland to the Idaho border,
a situation that isn’t infre-
quent on summer Saturdays.
Michael Mayer, another
trooper based in Hermis-
ton, said he used to be one
of two law enforcement
personnel working out of
the OSP’s Heppner office,
but when he transferred to
Hermiston, the office closed
with his departure.
Heppner hasn’t been the
only Eastern Oregon office
to shutter.
Back in 1980, OSP
staffed six troopers in Mil-
ton-Freewater. That office
has since shuttered, and
staff photo by e.J. harris
Members of the Oregon Legislature’s Joint Ways and Means Committee listen to testimony during a road show listening session at BMCC on Friday in Pendleton.
eO file photo
eO file photo
Oregon State Police fish and wildlife trooper Ryan Sharp checks the fishing licenses
of Kyle Barthel, left, and Jessy Morton in June 2018 at Hat Rock State Park.
An Oregon State Police trooper places the driver of a vehicle into the back of a
police cruiser on Sept. 5, 2015, on Highway 37 north of Pendleton.
according to Pendleton
trooper Karl Farber, OSP
can only afford to patrol the
north Umatilla County area
once or twice per week.
“Other than that, county
guys are up there work-
ing it and they’re on their
own,” he told the commit-
tee. “Now they don’t have
backup because they don’t
have troopers up there.”
The state has not only
closed the Heppner and Mil-
ton-Freewater offices, but
also halved the Hermiston
worksite from 18 to 9.
The
26
personnel
between Pendleton area
command and the Herm-
iston worksite now cover
an area that encompasses
the entirety of Umatilla
and Morrow counties and
includes parts of Gilliam,
Grant, Union, and Wheeler
counties.
Pendleton area com-
mand Lt. Mike Turner said
an important part of OSP’s
job is to enforce traffic laws
on the interstates and state
highways.
At a time when traveling
speeds and fatal collisions
are on the rise, Turner said a
lack of staff means troopers
aren’t able to cover as much
as ground as they used to.
Turner said the other part
of OSP’s job is providing
support to local agencies,
which return the favor when
they can.
Boardman Police Chief
Rick Stokoe said he’s
noticed the difference since
OSP closed its offices
in Heppner and Arling-
ton, which used to staff 12
members.
Stokoe said the Hermis-
ton office is often too busy
to completely cover Mor-
row County roadways, and
the Morrow County Sher-
iff’s Office now frequently
sends deputies to do traffic
enforcement.
Besides being frustrated
as a taxpayer that the sher-
iff’s office is diverting
resources to a traditional
OSP jurisdiction, Stokoe
said he was concerned that
Oregon was the bottom of
the barrel when it came to
law enforcement numbers.
“That’s a pretty scary
number,” he said.
In order to boost OSP
back to its 1980 levels and
beyond, the troopers at the
ways and means hearing
spoke in favor of House Bill
2046.
A bill that came at the
request of Gov. Kate Brown,
HB 2046 mandates the state
maintain at least 15 troop-
ers per 10,000 Oregonians
by 2030.
If the bill comes to pass,
it would require a mas-
sive OSP hiring spree in the
decade to come.
According to a fiscal
impact study from the Leg-
islative Fiscal Office, the
state would need to spend
$146.4 million over ten
years to hire 300 troop-
ers and purchase 146 cars,
among other expenses.
The bill is currently
awaiting consideration by
the ways and means com-
mittee, which deals with
budget issues.
State Sen. Bill Hansell, a
Republican member of the
committee whose North-
east Oregon district includes
much of the area covered by
OSP’s Pendleton area com-
mand, said ways and means
has heard “loud and clear”
that OSP needs more staff.
But in his experience,
the Legislature has typi-
cally been squeamish about
tying funding to population
numbers.
Hansell said if Oregon
were to experience another
recession, a trooper man-
date would require lawmak-
ers to begin making cuts to
other areas to meet it.
Hansell said OSP could
see
staffing
increases
through a criminal justice
package that’s folded into
the state budget, but it might
not meet all of OSP’s needs.