Jackets drop late match to fall to Cavaliers

By Barry Byers - The Herald

FORT MILL -- Some high-stakes wrestling took place Thursday night on the mat at Fort Mill High School.

Fort Mill was looking to keep its season alive, avoid an upset and get on track to challenge for the Class AAAA duals state championship, something the Yellow Jackets have grown accustomed to under coach Chris Brock.

Dorman's goal was to keep its rebuilding season going and to make it past the second round of the playoffs. And well in the back of Cavaliers coach Chad Strickland's head was Dorman's playoff match at Fort Mill two years ago.

Dorman had two wins that night by freshmen who are juniors on this year's team. The Cavaliers picked up a win from Tyquain English at 103 and Desmond Foster at 215.

English is at 125 now, and scored a 5-1 decision over Ryan Dugas on Thursday. Foster is still at 215, and it was his win over Brandon Medema in the final match of the night that gave Dorman a 33-27 victory.

Dorman, 8-3, is on the road Monday against No. 1 Rock Hill in the third round. Fort Mill fell to 19-4 as its duals season came to an end.

"After coming this far, I was thinking it would be crazy for me to lose," Foster said. "I didn't want to let my team down. We wrestle as a team, and I love all of them."

So Foster went out with this team ahead 29-27 and ran his record at Fort Mill to 2-0, winning big in doing so. He was all over Medema. The match had to be stopped twice because Medema's nose was bleeding. Late in the match, Medema was limping from getting his legs and body stretched and pulled by Foster for six long minutes.

Foster won big, getting four points for his 16-2 major decision.

"We have six or seven guys we have depended on all season," Brock said. "We've had hard times matching up our freshmen wrestlers in some of our weight classes all season. But I'm proud of our guys, and they did the best they could."

This morning when he wakes up after sleeping on the match, Brock will probably be very proud. With five matches left, his Yellow Jackets trailed 29-9 after a pin by Dorman's Giazzi Segarra at 145 pounds and had to win out and get at least two six-point pins to pull it out.

The Yellow Jackets got two straight decisions for six more points. Jonathan Miskelly beat Justin Bailey 6-3 at 152 pounds, and Thomas Mockridge slipped past Trevor Martin 4-2 at 160.

That made it 29-15 and set the stage for the two pins the Yellow Jackets needed. The first came at 171, with Dru Cunningham slapping Deven Foltz to the mat.

The second came at 189, where Max Simons ran his record to 41-0 by pinning Malik Crote 53 seconds into the first round and putting the match square on Medema's shoulders.

"I had just come off the mat and was not able to talk to Brandon," Simons said. "He knew what he needed to do. We couldn't pull it out and now we starting getting ready for the individuals tournament and next season."