By Kyle Klingman, W.I.N. Writer

In the Pacific Northwest, Oregon State University reigns supreme as the king of college wrestling and its head wrestling coach during the program’s best years was Dale Thomas.

            During his 34 seasons with the Beavers, Thomas posted 616 dual meet wins, the most by any college wrestling coach.

            From 1969 through 1981 — at the height of the program’s powers — Oregon State placed in the top ten at the NCAA tournament 13 out of 14 years, including five finishes in the top four.

            But on rare occasions, a king can be overthrown and in 1983 Southern Oregon University — an NAIA school based out of Ashland that was 0-14 against its in-state rival prior to 1983 — wanted to challenge Oregon State for its throne.

            They would get two opportunities during the year.

            “We had made a decision that year early in the season — with leadership from (Brent) Loftstedt and (Nathan) Winner — that we were just going to win a national title and that we were going to be the team to beat,” said Doug Samarron, the team’s 126 pounder.

            “We had a bunch of All-Americans and a returning national champion. Beating Oregon State was just part of the plan.”

            The plan almost worked halfway through the season. On January 15, 1983, the two teams wrestled to a 16-16 draw in Ashland.

            “I remember going into that (second) meet knowing that we could beat them because we had tied them earlier in the season,” said Samarron. “I do think we bumped some guys around though. I think we changed things up for the second meet.”

            The second meeting was more of a redo than a rematch. Only the 158-, 167-, and 177-pound bouts featured matches where the same two competitors faced each other.

            The Raiders started out fast in their dual against the Beavers in Corvallis.

            Southern Oregon won the first three weights classes, highlighted by Samarron’s superior decision (five team points) at 126 and a pin (six team points) by Brent Loftsedt — the team’s returning NAIA national champion — at 134 pounds.

            Oregon State got its first win at 142 pounds with a decision but Southern Oregon bounced back with a decision of its own at 150 pounds.

            The meet score was tied 8-8 the first time around. In the second match, with modified line-ups from both teams, the score was 17-3. A victory by the Raiders was inevitable.

            Or was it?

            The Beavers got nine points back at the subsequent three weights to make the team score 17-12. At 190 pounds, Jim Baumgartner — who won a 10-8 decision at heavyweight in the first dual to tie the meet — tied the second meeting at 17-17 with a 22-6 superior decision.

            In typical heavyweight fashion, Southern Oregon’s Rick Chandler and Oregon State’s Chris Bielenberg each had one point midway through the third period. But with the meet on the line, a match like this became a heart-pounding thriller.

            “I can remember the last period well,” said Bob Riehm, head coach of Southern Oregon from 1969 to 1994.

            “We won it on a stalling call in Corvallis. When do you win on a stalling call in Corvallis against the Beavers?”

            “The way it ended was Chandler, a national high school Greco champion, was pummeling in on Bielenberg. He backed him up enough that he was ahead 2-1 on a stalling call.”

            With a 20-17 victory over the mighty Oregon State Beavers a celebration by the Raiders ensued.

            “We went nuts,” said Samarron. “We went absolutely crazy. It was just like the icing on the cake to the season we planned we were going to have to be undefeated national champions.”

            The win was especially sweet for Larry Nugent, a former All-American for the Raiders who was serving as an assistant coach at the time. Nugent began his wrestling career at Oregon State before transferring to Southern Oregon.

            “I received a large measure of satisfaction when Rick Chandler won a near heart-attack producing 2-1 victory to beat the Beavers with their distinguished member of the Wrestling Hall of Fame coach Dr. Dale Thomas mat-side watching with a blank expression,” said Nugent.

            The Raiders closed the season with a 12-0-1 dual meet record and a team victory at the NAIA championships while the Beavers finished the dual meet season at 22-6 and a 22nd-place showing at the NCAA Division I tournament.

            The entire 1983 Southern Oregon wrestling team was inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame earlier this year.

            • Correction: In profiling the 1981 dual meet between Iowa State and Iowa, it was incorrectly stated that Jim Gibbons was on the verge of defeating Randy Lewis at the 1980 Midlands tournament.

            In reality, Gibbons was on the verge of sending the match into overtime.

            Officials of the Midlands tournament had implemented a rule that all matches ending in a tie prior to the semifinals would not go into overtime but would be won on criteria. Gibbons thought the rule applied to the semifinals and began celebrating when he had Lewis picked up in the air with the scored tied 4-4.

            The referee called Gibbons for stalling and Lewis won the match 5-4.

            (Over this publishing season, Kyle Klinman is featuring some of the more significant college dual meets in history. Klingman’s next dual meet profile will cover Ohio State’s victory over Oklahoma at the 2002 National Duals.)