The third time was the charm for Brandon Harding at the Class 3A state wrestling meet.

Harding, a senior from Gold Beach, captured the state title at 135 pounds Saturday in his third championship match in three years. He had just missed titles the past two years. Teammate Travis Moore also captured a state title in his second championship match.

Harding beat Sheridan’s Brandon Jordan 7-3 in the championship bout on Saturday.

“It feels good to finally get the monkey off my back,”he said in a phone interview.

Harding took the lead early in the match and held on.

“The kid was good,”he said of Jordan. “Everyone’s tough up there. You have to wrestle your best to win.”

Harding placed fifth at state as a freshman, and thinks his high school career record is about 125-10.

He and Moore were the first state champions for the Panthers since Tyler McGinnis won back-to-back titles, the latter in 2001. McGinnis coached Harding at state, along with Harding’s dad, Tim.

In the 189-pound weight class, Moore beat Michael Whitehead of Dayton 3-2 in a hard-fought final.

Moore, a junior, had pinned his other three foes on the way to his first state title.

“He was on fire,”Harding said of Moore, adding that having both Panthers win titles was “awesome.”

Harding and Moore were the only state champions for South Coast schools, though several other wrestlers placed.

The placers included Kelsey Carl, the only other Gold Beach qualifier for state, who was fourth at 112 pounds. It is believed to be the highest finish by a girl in state history. Waldport’s Misty Corwin was fifth in her weight class two years ago.

Carl lost a first-round match to Cesar Jacobs of Nyssa, but rebounded by pinning three straight foes before falling 19-11 to James Town of Riverside in the third-place match.

The Sunset Conference performed very well as a group in the Class 3A meet. Burns won the title with 159 points, but Glide was second with 130, Reedsport 10th (74.5), Gold Beach 12th (66), Myrtle Point 13th (59.5) and Coquille 14th (36.0). Glide’s Gabe Forrester (140 pounds) and Thomas O’Connor (160) each won championship bouts, giving the league four champions in the 14 weight classes.

Reedsport got fourth-place efforts from John Covey (130 pounds) and Nic Morris (215), while John Drozek (135) was fifth and Anthony Halstead (103) and Cesar Lira (189) were sixth.

Myrtle Point’s Johnny Campbell was third at 103 pounds, while teammate Eric Rains was fourth at 125. Ryan Love (103) and Zack Sykes (171) each finished fifth.

Coquille’s Colton Holmes finished third at 135 pounds and teammate Cody Messerle was fifth at 152.

Class 4A

North Bend had three placers in the state meet.

Jake Schneider (119 pounds) and James Baker (160) each took sixth place, while Korey Karavanich (145) was eighth.

Siuslaw had two placers  — Cameron Thrall (285 pounds) and Denver Conrad (271), who each took seventh. Conrad lost his first match, but then won an overtime match and two pins to reach the placing rounds. After a loss in the consolation quarterfinals, he recorded an overtime pin in the seventh-place final.

Far West League wrestlers Trinity Castner of Douglas and Brandon Bowers and Bo Younker of South Umpqua all lost in title bouts Saturday night.

Tillamook won the Class 4A title with 169 points. South Umpqua was 10th (82.5), Douglas 13th (70), North Bend 18th (39) and Siuslaw 22nd (33).

Class 5A

Marshfield’s lone placer, Cameron Winfrey, took eighth in the 140-pound weight class. Winfrey lost his two matches Saturday, both by one point. His first loss came to top seed Brady Holland of Eagle Point by a 5-4 score.

Hermiston won the Class 5A title, while Marshfield was 25th.

The other team champions were Roseburg in Class 6A and Culver in Class 2A-1A.