Controversy surfaces again in Region III rivalry

Anyone who knows the rivalry between the Rock Hill and Fort Mill high school wrestling teams knows there is no such thing as predictability.

Rock Hill beat Fort Mill 36-24 Thursday, yet again under a cloud of controversy. Rock Hill led wire-to-wire after winning the opening match at 160 pounds. The controversy came at 138 pounds as Rock Hill’s Chris Clayton edged Fort Mill’s Jarrod Kimball 7-6 in the closing seconds of the match after the ref awarded Clayton an escape point despite protests from Fort Mill head coach Chris Brock and the Jackets’ fans that Kimball still had control of Clayton.

That win pushed the score from 27-21 in Rock Hill’s favor to 30-21 and the Bearcats closed out the win at 145 pounds as Noah Mead pinned Evan Stankovits in the third period.

“The whole shift in momentum was about calls,” Brock said.

“The rules state an escape has to occur when the guy gets clearly clean from his opponent. That didn’t happen. They (Rock Hill) beat us, but that didn’t help us.”

The draw started at 160 pounds and Rock Hill went up 6-0. Fort Mill bounced back and got a major decision from Jack Debbout at 170 pounds. Earlier in the week, Debbout picked up his 100th career win in a match against Gaffney.

The two teams traded wins, including Fort Mill’s Jack Kelley getting a pin at 195 pounds to close the gap to 12-10. Rock Hill then won three straight matches to go ahead 23-10 win. Fort Mill picked up wins at 113 pounds with a 7-4 decision from John Brotemarkle and at 120 pounds, where Brody Claassen earned an 11-8 decision.

That put the meet within reach for Fort Mill, which trailed 23-16. After a Rock Hill win at 126 pounds, Fort Mill got a tech decision from AJ Leitten in a 20-5 win to put the team score at 27-21 with three matches left heading into the Clayton-Kimball bout. After Rock Hill clinched the dual meet, Fort Mill’s Stephen Hamilton got an 8-1 decision at 152 pounds to make the final score 36-24.

While still ranked No. 1 in the state, the loss dropped Fort Mill to 13-2 on the year. Rock Hill, ranked third at press time, improved to 35-1.

Fort Mill enters the week with Region III matches against Northwestern and Clover, both of which are at home. Their next big match will be Jan. 25 at home against cross-town rival Nation Ford.

This story was originally published January 15, 2016 at 2:28 PM with the headline "Controversy surfaces again in Region III rivalry."