Nation Ford came off the mat after tough dual to finish 2nd at Indian Land tournment

After struggling earlier in the week at a quad dual in Boiling Springs, the Nation Ford Falcons wrestling team rebounded to finish second in the Kersey Memorial Invitational at Indian Land.

Led by several weight class winners, Nation Ford scored 169 points as Indian Land went on to win its own tournament with 219.5 points.

Nation Ford was led by Dylan Tindall (126), Joshua Paxtor (138), Daniel Lopez (182) and Steven Dodge (195), who all won their weight class at the tournament. Solomon Moore finished fourth at 106 pounds, Dax Stegall finished third at 113 pounds, Reed Spilmann finished fourth at 120 pounds, Steven Johnson finished fourth at 132 pounds, Jacob Moore finished second at 145 pounds and RJ Lincoln finished third at 170 pounds.

The Nation Ford Falcons struggled to get their dual schedule off to a good start at a quad dual meet at Boiling Springs High. Nation Ford fell to host Boiling Springs 40-32 and Mauldin 42-33, but ended the evening on a good note after beating Woodmont 53-27.

Against Boiling Springs, the two teams stayed close through the first four matches before Nation Ford took a 15-12 lead on a 13-8 win by Johnson at 132. The Falcons would then get wins from Paxtor at 138 by pin fall and Moore at 145 on a 17-0 tech fall to go up 26-12.

However, Boiling Springs came back as Nation Ford would win just one of its final seven matches in the dual. Also getting wins for the Falcons against Boiling Springs were Spilmann and Tindall. Nation Ford had to forfeit at 120 pounds throughout the quad as Stegall had to sit out the meet.

“We came up a little short against Boiling Springs,” said Falcons’ head coach Dan Snell. “We are making young wrestling mistakes.”

Against Mauldin, Nation Ford again got out to a good start and was up 21-12 before Mauldin started to rally. Spilmann started things off with a first period pin at 113 pounds before Tindall added an11-4 decision to make it 9-6 in the Falcons’ favor. Paxtor got a second period pin and Moore won by forfeit before Mauldin started its uphill battle. Nation Ford would only get three more wins in the final seven matches as Bryson Perdue won 5-2 at 160 pounds and Dodge earned a win at 220 with a first period pin to close the gap to 36-30.

The Mavericks won at heavyweight to clinch the victory, but Solomon Moore closed the dual out with a 9-2 decision at 106 pounds.

In its final match of the evening, Nation Ford started slow, but rallied with a vengeance for the win. The Falcons went up 17-6 with wins from Tindall at 126 pounds, Johnson at 132 and Paxtor as 138. But again Woodmont rallied to go up 18-17 before Nation Ford would win six of its final eight matches in the dual.

Closing out the match with wins were Perdue, Dodge, Moore, Spilmann, Lincoln and Lopez.

“We ended the night well,” Snell said. “We let Mauldin get away from us.”

The Falcons are scheduled to travel to Dorman for a tri-meet this week and then head to the Wade Hampton Duals over the weekend.

This story was originally published December 10, 2017 at 7:32 PM with the headline "Nation Ford came off the mat after tough dual to finish 2nd at Indian Land tournment."