Dauphin brothers capture second crowns for El Reno

By Matt Patterson

Published: February 24, 2008

Cody and Cory Dauphin have quite a brotherly rivalry going.

Cory won his second state championship at 140 pounds Saturday and Cody followed with his second title at 215. The pair helped El Reno to a second place finish behind Class 4A champion Catoosa who racked up 151.5 team points to El Reno's 91.5.

Cory won his state championship match by fall over Catoosa's Brock Mason and Cody beat Harrah's Levi Queen 3-2 as his brother cheered him on.

"It's one of the best feelings in the world to know we're brothers and we're two-time champions,” Cody Dauphin said. "Hopefully we can be four-time winners.”

With Catoosa dominating the tournament, El Reno's best hope was to finish second. The Indians also picked up a state championship from heavyweight Bryan Soloman, a cousin of the Dauphin brothers. Austin Mogg lost to Kidd Gomez in the 112-pound title match.

"We would have liked to have had four with Austin,” coach Shane Head said. "Catoosa had it in the bag before we got here. You don't want to admit that. You still have to wrestle, but after the semis we knew what was coming so we set our sights on getting second.”

Harrah's Travis Quintero (135) won his finals match with Catoosa's Ben Morgan by a 6-3 decision. There is no shortage of bad blood between the two. Quintero pinned Morgan at regionals and both were ejected during a match at the Carl Albert tournament in January for fighting.

"It definitely makes it sweeter,” Quintero said. "He did pretty well against me in this one. I wasn't expecting that.”

Quintero, who was named the Outstanding Wrestler in Class 4A, knows he is perceived by some as cocky, even arrogant. But confidence is important to him.

"I think you have to be really confident in this sport because if you don't believe in yourself you're not going to be very successful,” Quintero said.

Noble had a pair of champions in Gomez (112) and Tim Taylor (160). Gomez won his second championship by beating El Reno's Mogg 5-2. Taylor won his match by a 10-8 decision. Gomez, a junior, also won a state championship as a freshman. He finished the season 33-1. He is Noble's first two-time champion.

"I was looking forward to being Noble's first two-time winner,” Gomez said. "It feels cool to be a part of history.”

Deer Creek's Cade Draper (152) won his first championship with a decision over Bixby's Garrick Bowles. Carl Albert's placers included runner-up Zach Aylor (189), third place Landon Comes (125) and Jared Porter (145) and David McNeil (112) who placed fourth.

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