BRISTOL, Tenn. — For the second straight dual, the Newberry wrestling team found themselves in position to come away victorious, but a pin in the last bout of the afternoon proved the difference. King came away with their first ever win over Newberry by a score of 26-21. The Wolves dropped consecutive matches for the first time since the NWCA National Duals in 2019 against Tiffin and Maryville.
The match got started at 125 where Evan Carrigan filled in for Zach Shupp and picked up where the 2021 National Qualifier left off, earning a pin over Rylee Billings to give the Wolves the early 6-0 lead.
Timothy Decatur followed that up at 133 with a tech fall against Preston Soriano and Newberry was up 11-0. But the Tornado fought back, earning major decisions in each of the next three bouts as well as a sudden victory at 165 to flip a 11-0 Newberry lead into a 15-11 deficit for the Scarlet and Gray.
Ninth-ranked Caleb Spears earned a major decision at 174 to tie the match back up at 15-all. At 184, with less than 15 seconds remaining until overtime, King’s Freddie Garcia pinned Armando Acosta to ignite the Tornado crowd and appear to swing the match in King’s favor.
Brandon Dickman; however, had other plans as he silenced the crowd with a dominant pin of his own just under two minutes into his 197-pound bout against Jeremiah Good. With the score tied at 21-all the match came down to the final bout at 285. With just over a minute left until sudden victory overtime, King’s Ty Kelly was able to get Bowdy Boyce onto his back and earn the pin to shock the Wolves. In the celebration aftermath, King was deducted one team point due to unsportsmanlike conduct, but the final result still held as a 26-21 defeat for Newberry.
Newberry will be back in SACC action on Thursday, December 2 as they head to Charlotte to face the Queens Royals.