Snake bitten in the South
12/29/2007 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Snake bitten in the South
Series of heart-breaking finishes costs Flashes a top-ten finish in G'boro
By Ty Linder
In all rounds of action during day two of the Southern Scuffle at the Greensboro Coliseum, Kent State head coach Jim Andrassy watched in agonizing frustration as his wrestlers allowed point after point with 15 seconds or fewer remaining in regulation or when the mat tapper comes on the mat to signal to the official the period is nearly over. In all, at least five matches slipped away from the Golden Flashes in the final seconds after victory seemed a certainty.
“Losing is never fun, but when you've worked so hard all match to build a lead and then can't hold it, it's tough,” Andrassy explained. “Our guys definitely need to do a better job of finishing matches.”
It started in a 133-pound quarterfinal match. Wrestling with a perfect 15-0 record and facing an opponent he'd defeated a month earlier, junior Dan Mitcheff let a late lead slip away, and he suffered a 5-3 loss. At 141, Drew Lashaway pinned his quarterfinal opponent, then built what looked to be an insurmountable 5-0 lead in the semis against top-seeded Charles Griffin of Hofstra. Lashaway seemed a cinch to add another upset to his legacy, but suddenly lost control of the bout and was outscored 11-1 the rest of the way, falling 11-6.
Back at 133, Mitcheff had leads in his final two consolation bouts but lost them and settled for a seventh-place finish. Lashaway also held a precarious lead in his consolation semifinal but lost 3-2. He would then save face with a 6-4 nod in the fifth place final to become KSU's highest medalist on the weekend.
At 165 pounds, Kurt Gross ran into trouble in his quarterfinal match and lost 8-1. He dropped into the consolation bracket and after posting a 6-3 win, defaulted from the event for precautionary reasons. He was awarded eighth place.
Eric Chine actually turned
Finally at 285, Jermail Porter led Edinboro's Joey Fendone 5-1 into the third period. He seemed poised to become
Defending national champion
“We'll try and rebound from this second day,” Andrassy said. “Our guys have been really looking forward to defending the home mats against
The Flashes and Buckeyes will do battle in
From Day One:
Operating at “full capacity” for the first time all season, the Golden Flashes suffered only a handful of losses on the first day of competition at the Scuffle, with only fourth-seeded Nic Bedelyon falling victim to upset. Dan Mitcheff, Drew Lashaway, Kurt Gross, Eric Chine and Jermail Porter are stayed alive in the championship bracket during day one.
Mitcheff's two wins Saturday were by scores of 7-2 and 7-4.
After starting off slow, Lashaway erased a deficit in his opening round match against Will Powers of George Mason for a 10-9 win. He then knocked of Navy's Glenn Shober 8-4 and punched a ticket to the quarters with a 4-2 nod over Kareem Naguib of
In his first action for
At 184 pounds, junior Eric Chine won his only two matches, the first of which was a blowout. Against Glen Holmes of Appalachian State, Chine rolled up 13 points en route to a 13-3 win, his fourth major decision of the year. Then he held off fellow Ohioan Chris Honeycutt of Edinboro, 3-1. Chine had a nine-match winning streak snapped on Sunday.
The other Golden Flash to go perfect on the first day was Jermail Porter. Porter reeled off 24 points in two matches against his opponents. His wins came against Mike Tunick of Duke, 17-6 and Ryan Bergman of Cal-Bakersfield, 7-4.
After a big win in his first match, Bedelyon then fell behind 10-8 in his second match with short time remaining. At the buzzer, and as the two combatants were rolling out of bounds, the true freshman scored a match-tying takedown to send the bout into overtime. There, he was simply caught in a headlock and tossed to the mat for a 15-10 loss.
Bedelyon, along with Clayton Stark, Jeremy Depoy, Clint Sponseller, Patrick Lanham, Sli Bostelman, Obie Simpson,
Chris Estep and Michael Blackwell all wrestled on the weekend but were eliminated without placement.
