All went right for the Morrisville-Eaton wrestling team early in last Tuesday’s home meet against Sherburne-Earlville.
However, the whole thing turned around in the late stages, when the Marauders took five of the last six matches and handed the Warriors a 32-30 defeat.
After an opening S-E pin, Rourke Devlin put M-E on the board at 130 pounds, pinning Derrick Murray midway through the third period.
Jordan Doroshenko, at 140 pounds, began the Warriors’ hot stretch by holding off Seamus Kehoe in an 11-8 thriller. Cody Frost (145 pounds) followed by pinning Joe Knapp in 1:29.
In a hard-fought 160-pound match, Mike Hackney beat Kyle Johnson 5-3, just before Ryan LeBlanc did his quick work at 171 pounds, taking just 29 seconds to pin Christina Mullenax.
When Ethan Childs (189 pounds) pinned Bradon Thorton late in the second period, M-E possessed a 30-21 lead, requiring just one more win in the last three matches to pull it out.
But the Warriors never got any of them. Barney Prince (103 pounds) and Darren Perry (119 pounds) both lost decisions, but Austin Hirsch (112 pounds) had the painful one.
Just a takedown from the match (and the points needed for a team win) against Steve Youngs, Hirsch could not quite pull it off, absorbing an 8-7 defeat that was vital to S-E’s comeback efforts.
All this followed the Warriors’ appearance at the Calkins Memorial Tournament at Richfield Springs on Dec. 8, where it finished eighth in a field of 16 with 63 points. Sherburne-Earlville won here, too, its 195 points just clear of Carthage (185 points).
LeBlanc did not participate, but two Warriors did make finals. Perry reached the 119-pound title match and took a narrow 4-3 defeat to Matt Prentice (Frankfort-Schuyler), while heavyweight Mike Barker fell 7-0 to S-E’s Chris Pike in the 285-pound final.
A week later, the Warriors found itself at Whitesboro, part of the two-day Tri-Valley Tournament where 15 teams (mostly from the eastern part of Section III) took part. M-E finished fifth, with 127.5 points, as Mexico (182 points) took the team crown.
Barker won the 285-pound championship, beating Elijah Graham (Fowler) in an 8-4 decision. LeBlanc roared to the finals, but then suffered his first defeat of the season, beaten in triple overtime by Ryan Black (Warrensburg) in a tough 2-1 match in the 160-pound final.
Frost also reached the 140-pound title match before Zach Clemente (Troy LaSalle) pinned him in the third period. Rourke Devlin (130 pounds) and Alex Meyers (171 pounds) both had third-place finishes, while Childs got fourth place at 189 pounds.
M-E competes this week, going to Adirondack on Tuesday, then hosting Mohawk on Thursday night before going on hiatus for the rest of 2007.
