Panthers claw past Trojans

FAIRFIELD ­- It doesn't get much closer in the sport of wrestling than the dual between Mt. Pleasant and Fairfield on Thursday night. In a back-and-forth dual that saw plenty of close matches, Mt. Pleasant took the last lead of the night in the final match, upending the Trojans 34-33.

The final match was the 120-pound bout between Mt. Pleasant's Carson Coleman and Fairfield's Jonah Cooper. Coleman, who beat Cooper in a tournament earlier this season, took the final match on a 9-4 decision to clinch the SEC win.

'Carson is wrestling well right now,” Panther head coach Anthony Blint said. 'Going down to the last match, you always want to have someone you feel comfortable with and someone that you know is going to go out and wrestle a hard six minutes, and whatever happens, happens.”

Cooper didn't make it easy on Coleman. he didn't give up any bonus points and wrestled him two points better than their previous matchup, something Coach Steve Miller says he liked to see.

'Coleman is a good wrestler,” Coach Miller said. 'We wrestled him earlier in the season up at the finals in Iowa City Regina, and he beat us 11-4. We're all about closing the gaps, and we closed the gap tonight.”

The two teams split the first four matches of the night when Mt. Pleasant's Corbin Broeker and Gannon McNamee won the 126 pound and 138 pound matches respectively, and Fairfield's Brecken Courtright and Logan Adam won at 132 pounds and 145 pounds.

A forfeit win by Dalton Mondia at 152 pounds turned a 10-9 Mt. Pleasant lead into a 15-10 advantage for the Trojans. Mt. Pleasant responded with two-straight wins, a 5-0 decision by Jaden Davis at 160 pounds and a pin from Dylan Cowick at 170 pounds.

Fairfield grabbed a 21-19 lead after a pin at 182 pounds by Caleb Heisel, who moved up two classes from his normal weight.

'He's our normal 160-pounder. I had to weigh him in over 160 so he qualified for 170, so he could wrestle 182,” Coach Miller said. 'I told him before we even started, ‘Hey, I'm bumping you all the way up to 182, I need you to go out there and pin this kid. There's a senior that goes out and just does what you ask him to do.”

Grady Flynn grinded out a 4-3 win at 195 pounds to put the Trojans up 27-19. The next three weight classes were forfeits, with Mt. Pleasant taking two of three to put themselves back up 31-30.

In the 113-pound match, Fairfield's Zach Westercamp grinded out a 2-0 win over Mt. Pleasant's Bowen Davis to put Fairfield back on top, but Coleman followed with the night-ending 9-4 decision at 120 pounds.

Mt. Pleasant is now 2-2 in SEC duals. Fairfield finished the conference slate 1-4.