Dec 10, 2014 3 min read

CLAYSVILLE – For the first time in nearly three decades, the McGuffey Highlanders wrestled a section match as a Class AA team.

They made it a memorable one.

The Highlanders trailed for most of the dual meet against Jefferson-Morgan, but recorded pins in each of the last three bouts, the decisive one coming from Jeffrey McConn, who pinned Andrew Eaton at 152, to propel McGuffey to a 40-35 Section 2-A victory.

Things looked bleak for McGuffey until Aaron Harris (132) stepped on the mat with the Highlanders trailing, 35-22, with three bouts remaining.

Harris came through with a pin of Austin Goldsberry to give McGuffey some life, trailing 35-28.

Luke Desmond (145) followed Harris by pinning Aaron Mylan in 5:31, which brought the Highlanders to within one, 35-34.

That set the stage for McConn, who made quick work of Eaton to give the Highlanders an improbable come-from-behind victory.

“I was real happy how the boys at the end kept their composure and came through,” said McGuffey head coach Mark Caffrey. “I thought that we would be able to take some points there. We fell behind early and often kids can lose their composure when they fall far behind. But we just kept scratching and clawing and came out on top. It was a great match.”

Jefferson-Morgan had leads of 13 points three time but the biggest came at 22-6 through five weights. The Rockets collected bonus points in almost every bout.

Trevor Jamison (152) started the match with a major decision and Trevor Kniha followed with a pin at 160. Bill Bowlen (182) won by forfeit and Anthony Patterson (195) added a pin in the run.

“I would have loved to see this match as the last one of the season for the section title instead of the first one,” said J-M head coach Mike Lesko. “We will see them again. They are tough, a Triple-A team coming down to Double-A. They got the numbers. We have like one or two extra kids, they have like seven or eight.”

McGuffey cut the lead to 25-18 when Lane Klein won by forfeit at 106. That happened because Lesko moved freshman Gavin Teasdale, the No. 2 ranked wrestler in the nation at 106 pounds by Intermat, up to 113, where he pinned Brandon DeGarmo in 58 seconds.

Teasdale had to bump to 113 as the Rockets regular wrestler at that weight was out sick.

“That hurt,” said Lesko. “I would have like to think that we could have gotten bonus points there also.”

The two teams exchanged major decisions. McGuffey’s Gage Nicolella stopped Josh Agnew, 11-2, at 120 and Brendan Howard won by nearly the same score, 11-3 over Teague Nicolella at 126. J-M now led 35-22 lead with just three bouts remaining.

That’s when Harris stepped to the mat to begin the run of pins.

“Aaron had the most pins for us last year,” said Caffrey. “He’s a pinner. I told him that we had to have it and he locked one of his tightest moves on him and got it done.”

The Highlanders also got a pin from Connor Thompson at 170.

“It wasn’t a real pretty win,” said Caffrey. “It was actually pretty ugly. But we won. We will keep getting better.”