REDMOND — When Kris Davis says that winning the Oregon Wrestling Classic is almost bigger than winning a state championship, he is not being hyperbolic.

Winning the annual dual-meet tournament held just over three miles from the school where Davis graduated from in 1991 and has spent the past 11 years coaching, has a similar feeling to what Redmond accomplished last February.

“It is everything to our program, to my family, it means so much,” said a choked-up Davis shortly after claiming the title. “I’m a Redmond guy. We have never won this and so this is huge for us. We got to do this in front of our home crowd.

“To know that this is the first one in school history since it started, to have it in Redmond, it feels so good right now,” Davis continued.. “We’ve worked so hard for this.”

The Davis family has had its fingerprints on the Redmond wrestling program long before Davis took over the reins of the program in 2013.

Davis wrestled for his father Kurt Davis who was the Panthers’ coach for nearly two decades starting in the mid-80’s. Davis’ grandfather, Gale Davis, was an assistant coach for Redmond’s first — and until last year, its only — state championship team in 1959.

Until Saturday, Redmond had never won an Oregon Wrestling Classic title.

It isn’t lost on the Redmond wrestlers that leading the Redmond wrestling team is important to Davis.

“It is so motivating,” said senior Ashton Fields. “Just like last year when we won the state title, it made him cry. It gave us fire and fuel to work harder for him.”

Winter storms — which saw below zero temperatures and several inches of snow fall at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center on Friday and Saturday — force dozens of teams to drop out of the annual dual-meet tournament. But many of the major players and contenders for state titles made the voyage to Redmond.

To claim the Class 5A title, Redmond had to go through a tough Thurston team (which finished second at last year’s state tournament) in the semifinals and then face Dallas in the finals. Dallas already had a win over Redmond to claim the Northwest Duals title in December.

And it all came down to the final match of the Saturday evening.

With Redmond leading Dallas by four points going into the 185-pound weight class, all Fields had to do was not get pinned or lose by a major decision (by more than eight points) and the title would go to the Panthers.

“My main goal was not to get on my back,” Fields said. “You have your whole team behind you cheering you on. It is all mental, you feel this pressure, but you don’t want to lose this dual for your team.”

Fields might have lost the battle, losing 4-0 to Kyron Dodds in the match, but he helped Redmond win the war.

Redmond beat Dallas 33-32 to win its first Oregon Wrestling Classic title in the tournament’s 40-year history.

“It is pretty amazing to be a part of,” said Deandre McDonald . “ We made history last year when we won a state title for the first time since 1959, then we won the Coach Classic which has never been done before. It’s awesome to be a part of it.”

In the championship dual, Dallas actually won more matches (eight) than Redmond (six). Of those six wins, Billy Jackson, Joseph Downing, Jared Ake, Alan Segorviano, McDonald all won by pins. And they needed each and every one of them.

“Those pins are awesome,” McDonald said. “If one of us didn’t get a pin, we would have not won.”

Perhaps no pin swung the tides of the dual than Segoviano in teh 167-pound weight class. Segoviano was down four points after the first round, but then came back to pin his opponent early in the second round.

“He worked so hard this week to get his weight down,” Davis said. “Couldn’t be more proud of him. In a championship match, his match was the difference.”

Mountain View finished fourth, Bend finished sixth while Ridgeview finished 8th.

Mountain View finished fourth, Bend placed sixth and Ridgeview finished eighth.

Crook County also reached the championship round in Class 4A, but came up short against Sweet Home 40-21 in the finals.

Culver advanced to the semifinals of the 2A/1A field, but fell to Willamina — the eventual tournament champion — before rebounding to beat Toledo 51-30 to finish with a third-place trophy.

La Pine finished fourth in Class 3A. The Hawks started Saturday off with a 54-27 win over Coquille, but then lost to Burns — the eventual tournament champion — in the semifinals, then fell to Banks in a wild dual in which all but one match ended in a pin.

The Redmond girls team was the only local girls team to place at the Oregon Classic, as the Panthers took down Tillamook 42-39 in the fifth-place match.