Mt. Pleasant holds off Fairfield in 36-30 win

When Fairfield?s Jacob Mineart grabbed a 6-1 lead over Mt. Pleasant?s Jacob Dilks midway through the 215-pound match Thursday night, it appeared Fairfield would set the tone for the Southeast Conference dual.

But as soon as Mineart took the lead, Dilks fought back, eventually winning the match in an 8-6 overtime decision.

Momentum ? Mt. Pleasant.

Mt. Pleasant (6-7) used the momentum from the Dilks match to win six of the next eight matches, surging to a 36-12 lead before Fairfield (6-2) fought back in the middle weights, winning five straight matches. Though Fairfield won the last varsity match of the night, Mt. Pleasant was able to hold on for the 36-30 conference win.

?That was a big momentum for the whole meet, getting us started on the right foot,? said Mt. Pleasant coach Anthony Blint of the Dilks match. ?Overall, good crowd, [the] kids wrestled real good, real hard. No one quit, every one of them had a lot of fight.?

On the other side of the mat, a disappointed Fairfield coach, Bob Glenn, had already started looking towards his team?s weekend meet in Clinton.

?Yeah it was a disappointing loss. We had a couple of guys missing from our lineup [130-pound Ammon Shaner and 135-pound Quinton Bradfield] with injuries and illness ? Mt. Pleasant had one,? said Glenn. ?It?s pretty early to say [if the injured/ill wrestlers would be able to rejoin them], we?ll just have to see how they feel tomorrow. We?ve had an awful lot of flu and other illnesses coming through us.?

Though Fairfield was without two of its main wrestlers, the team grabbed wins with Roan Bachar, Michael Hammes, Jacob Pilcher, Jeff Guttry and Seth Davvison in the middle to heavy weights. Michael Smithburg and Dakota Simmons also picked up wins for the Trojans.

While Fairfield battles through injuries and illness, Mt. Pleasant continues its season-long fight through injuries.

?We?ve got three guys [Brian Adair, Galen Prahn, Derrek Movall] out with injuries right now so we?re missing three of our possible varsity guys,? said Blint. ?[But] all of the guys are stepping in, pitching in. The guys are going out there and wrestling the full six minutes, making weight and getting after the guys.?

Freshmen Tyler and Alex Lanphier along with sophomore Sully Dameron picked up three straight wins in the light-weights for Mt. Pleasant before teammates Zach May, Josh Larson and Jed Edgington grabbed another three wins for the Panthers.

Mt. Pleasant heads to Williamsburg on Saturday, Jan. 22, while Fairfield travels to Clinton for a meet, also on Jan. 22.

For full individual results, see the Jan. 21 issue of the Mt. Pleasant News.