Mountain View wins its first Oregon Wrestling Classic title, Culver wins for 19th time; La Pine disqualified 

La Pine had controversial weigh-in issue, and could not compete for the title

REDMOND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The Oregon Wrestling Classic in Redmond over the weekend left a couple Central Oregon teams feeling on top of the world -- and one feeling shorted.

The Culver Bulldogs captured their 19th Classic title, and 17th title in a row.

The Bulldogs defeated Illinois Valley 57-17 in the finals, winning nine of its final 10 matches by pin or forfeit.  

In Class 4A, Crook County finished second to La Grande.

In 5A, Mountain View took home its first ever Oregon Wrestling Classic title. The Cougars beat Thurston 45-32 in an exciting finals match. 

Coach Les Combs said Tuesday the program, which has seen some devastating losses in the Classic, has been able to grow and thrive the past few years, thanks to committed wrestlers, parents and coaches.

“The success comes from the fact that a lot of people are putting in a lot of time. You know, it's not me, by any stretch of the imagination -- I just happen to be at the top,” Combs said.

“It's taken a lot of time but all the kids in our program come from Oregon," he added. "There's no kids coming from other schools or other places,  it's all our kids. For us to get a win, that was pretty satisfying.”

Coach Combs and his team were able to enjoy the big win, but are keeping their eyes on the future. 

“In the moment that it happened, it was really exciting," Combs said. "But one of the things we talked about after the match was that we’ve got some pretty high goals for ourselves this year.”

“You know, we’ve only won one league championship in our program's history, so that’s another goal we have that’s in the future. So Reser, the state qualifying tournament, and then to be better than we’ve ever been at State, which the highest place we’ve ever had as a team is third, so our goal is to surpass that.”

Combs says he is proud of his wrestlers and hopes to keep this impressive season going. 

Unfortunately, not every Central Oregon team left this weekend feeling satisfied. 

The reigning 3A state champion La Pine Hawks were looking to repeat as Oregon Classic champions, but the team was disqualified due to a wrestler who was marked too heavy for the weight class he competed in.

The wrestler competed in the 138-pound weight class. 

The tournament allows a four-pound difference, meaning the wrestler could weigh as much as 142.

He was marked as 0.2 pounds over.

According to Coach Aaron Flack, the wrestler weighed in at La Pine before the team left, and was 0.8 under. 

In addition, Combs said he was not informed the wrestler was over at the weigh-in.

When it was discovered he wrestled over weight, his individual matches became forfeits.     

However, the Oregon Classic committee decided per NFHS policy, the entire duals had to be forfeited, disqualifying La Pine from a chance for the title. 

If not for that, La Pine would have won each of its Friday duals by more than 40 points. 

In part of a statement put out on Facebook, Coach Flack said, "I don't want to take away from the fact that our kids were wrestling tough, and they didn’t deserve to have this stripped from them."

NewsChannel 21 spoke with Flack by phone, and he said the situation is “unfortunate” and that "human error" is a main factor.

He includes himself in that, for not catching the weigh-in numbers in the morning.

However, he said he wants to move forward and continue on with the season.