ST. PARIS, Ohio -- In what may go down as one of the most bizarre and exciting high school dual meets ever, No. 12 St. Paris Graham pulled off a huge upset win over No. 2 St. Edward. With victories coming by injury defaults, stall calls, and every other way imaginable, the St. Paris Graham Falcons were able to top the St. Edward Eagles 30-29 in a very hotly contested dual meet.
The dual meet started at 120 pounds and Graham moved their 126-pounder Mario Kastl down to 120 pounds and moved Brent Moore up to 126 pounds. The move worked to perfection as Graham took a 7-0 lead after the first two matches.
In what was billed as the marquee match of the night, No. 2 Micah Jordan of St. Paris Graham faced No. 3 Dean Heil of St. Ed's at 132 pounds. After a scoreless first period, Jordan chose down and got out quickly, but Heil struck with a takedown to take the lead. Heil had a 3-2 lead late in the third when Jordan was able to strike with a beautiful takedown and then rode out Heil for the win.
St. Ed's, trailing 10-0, finally got on the board with a dominating performance from No. 17 Colin Heffernan, who used an array of takedowns to get the Eagles back into the match with a technical fall. No. 3 Edgar Bright followed up with another technical fall of his own, winning 17 -2 over Garrett Jordan. The match at 152 pounds pitted No. 8 Alex Marinelli against No. 9 Markus Scheidel, and lived up to the billing. Scheidel was able to squeak out the 9-7 victory by using Houdini-like moves to avoid what seemed to be sure-fire takedowns.
The best pound-for-pound wrestler in the country, Bo Jordan, made quick work of his opponent at 160 pounds, getting the only pin of the dual meet in a mere 31 seconds. St. Paris Graham took a 16-13 lead into intermission.
St. Ed's was able to tie it up after Ray Barr at 170 was able to pull off the victory in a tight 6-5 victory. Then St. Paris Graham decided to forfeit against No. 2 Dominic Abounader. With St. Ed's now leading 22-16, Gabe Dzuro was able to add to that lead with a decision, bringing the lead to 25-16. With the door looking like it was about to close on St. Paris Graham's chance of winning, the perfect storm happened.
At 220, Anthony Welty was able to upend Parker Knapp in a very odd way. Welty was leading in the third when the refs called the match after Knapp used his third injury timeout, subsequently forfeiting the match. This allowed St. Paris Graham right back in the dual meet. After Nichols for Ed's was able to get the major decision with a late takedown in the third, it was now up to the lightweights of Graham to win the dual meet.
At 103, L.J. Bentley of St. Ed's was controlling the whole match going into the third and had a 4-1 lead over Ironman champion Eli Stickley. Bentley chose down, but was called for stalling for a second time, making it 4-2. However that wasn't the end of the stall calls by the ref, as he added an additional two more in the third period making it 5-4 in favor of Stickley. This victory by Stickley made it 29-25 in favor of St. Ed's.
This will definitely go down as a dual for the ages as St. Paris Graham was able to get the dual meet victory by criteria having more six-point match victories after the teams split down the middle with seven wins a piece.
St. Paris Graham 30, St. Edward 29
120: Mario Kastl (St. Paris Graham) dec. Kurt Wysoki (St. Edward), 8-6
126: Brent Moore (St. Paris Graham) maj. dec. Chance Driscoll (St. Edward), 9-1
132: No. 2 Micah Jordan (St. Paris Graham) dec. No. 3 Dean Heil (St. Edward), 4-3
138: No. 17 Colin Heffernan (St. Edward) tech. fall Brent Henkle (St. Paris Graham), 25-10
145: No. 3 Edgar Bright (St. Edward) tech. fall Garrett Jordan (St. Paris Graham), 17-2
152: No. 9 Markus Scheidel (St. Edward) dec. No. 8 Alex Marinelli (St. Paris Graham), 9-7
160: No. 1 Bo Jordan (St. Paris Graham) pinned Robbie Rogers (St. Edward), :31
170: Ray Barr (St. Edward) dec. Lane Thomas (St. Paris Graham), 6-5
182: No. 2 Domenic Abounader (St. Edward) won by forfeit
195: Gabe Dzuro (St. Edward) dec. Josh Couchman (St. Paris Graham), 10-8
220: Anthony Welty (St. Paris Graham) won by injury def. over Parker Knapp (St. Edward)
285: Ralph Nichols (St. Edward) maj. dec. Cable Courtwright (St. Paris Graham), 12-3
106: No. 5 Eli Stickley (St. Paris Graham) dec. L.J. Bentley (St. Edward), 5-4
113: Eli Seipel (St. Paris Graham) maj. dec. Sal Corrao (St. Edward), 14-4
*Graham wins on criteria by virtue of most six-point victory matches, 2-1.
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