Thanks to Justin Thompson’s hard work in the last seconds of the last match Thursday night, the Liverpool wrestling team pulled out a 36-34 victory over Fayetteville-Manlius.
Through 12 matches, the Warriors were down by one, 34-33, so any kind of victory by Thompson over the Hornets’ Connor Wingate in the 125-pound finale would do.
For six long minutes, Thompson and Wingate dueled it out, and neither side would win. They went to overtime tied, 8-8, but with a single escape, Thompson prevailed 9-8, and Liverpool had won the meet.
Much earlier, the show had started with Tyler Kolbasook, at 130 pounds, pinning Robert Powell in 1:41. F-M then won the next four matches — one forfeit, three pins — to seize a 24-6 advantage.
Somehow, Liverpool made it through the early crisis, and started to turn it around at 160 pound with Derek Eason’s 90-second pin of Jacob Rau.
After Joe Pizzuto (171 pounds) beat Jordan McDonald, Mike Reed did a quick job at 189 pounds, pinning Roger Colon in 31 seconds before Jon Miller (215 pounds) shut out Greg Breen by a 5-0 margin.
In between two more F-M wins, Tyler Eason (112 pounds) did earn a pin over Phil McKnight midway through the third period, setting the stage for Thompson’s winning finale.
