Dogs take fourth amid controversy

This article submitted by Michael Jacobson on 3/07/01.

In the end, Frazee's six state place winners, Frazee's five-time state champion, Matt Nagel, and Frazee's desire for revenge didn't get the best of the Bulldogs on Saturday in the Class A third-place match.

What cost Paynesville the third-place trophy was a blown call, enabling Frazee to rally to a 32-27 victory and avenge their loss to the Bulldogs in last year's title match.

The controversial call occurred at the end of regulation in the 171-pound match between Paynesville's Max Meagher and Frazee's Joe Dretsch. These two met earlier in individual competition, and Dretsch dominated the third period, breaking a 2-2 tie, and won 7-2.

Now in the team match with the Bulldogs leading 27-19 after Ryan Glenz's pin at 160, another victory would have given Paynesville an 11-point lead with two matches to go. Meagher scored reverses in the closing seconds of the first and second periods to take a 4-2 lead into the third. Dretsch scored a reversal to tie the score, but immediately clasped to keep control of Meagher. The penalty point giving Meagher a 5-4 lead.

Dretsch, who took fourth at 160, let Meagher go, and tried for a tying takedown. With ten seconds to go he got it, and nearly scored back points. But Meagher rolled through, got out of Dretsch's control, and took him down as the buzzer sounded.

Whether Meagher scored the takedown before the buzzer sounded was close, but there was no question that he had escaped from Dretsch's control, at least not in the eyes of Paynesville fans.

At least five minutes were spent discussing the call. Head coach Virg Vagle said the head referee was going to award one point for an escape but the other referee said the time ran out.

"There was clearly time left," said Vagle after the match. "The question was if we should have had one or two."

Just one point for an escape would have won the match for Meagher, and those three points for Paynesville, instead of Frazee, would have made the final score 30-29.

"I knew when he took me down that I had to get out," said Meagher of his match. "When I didn't even get one, it kind of surprised me. I guess it's something that you have no control of."

The official score at that point should have had the match tied at six, but Meagher's escape wasn't recorded, making the referees think that Dretsch had won 6-5 and even raised his hand. This led to another conference in which the correct official score of 6-6 was determined.

In overtime, Meagher was the aggressor for the first 90 seconds. He took Dretsch down once, but his feet were inches off the mat, so it rightfully didn't count. "I was deep once on the leg," said Meagher. "I couldn't finish anything. He's a good wrestler."

Dretsch finally got a takedown with six seconds left in overtime to win 8-6.

This win set up Frazee's rally. A year ago, Paynesville won the last two matches, including a pin at heavyweight, to win the title. This year, Frazee won the final three matches and won 32-27.

The Bulldogs won only five matches against the Hornets, but had pins in four of them to offset the Hornets' decisions.

Trailing 10-0 after three weights, the Bulldogs got three consecutive pins at 125, 130, and 135. Jeremy Sogge got the first one at 125 with a headlock, and David Kerzman got the next one at 130 against the sixth-place finisher in the state.

At 135, Jeremy Fuchs faced the Hornets' Gabe Dretsch, who ended the regular season with a 20-5 record. After a scoreless first period, Dretsch took down Fuchs, who rolled momentarily on his back and then rolled over onto Dretsch. "When I saw the ceiling for a split second, I got worried," said Fuchs. "I just kept rolling."

When he found himself on top of Dretsch, Fuchs said, "I got pumped and thought, I need to pin him now." That gave Paynesville an 18-10 lead, and Joe Hiltner's decision at 140 extended it to 21-10. Hiltner controlled the match against Adam Aho, the state runner-up at 140. Hiltner scored three takedowns and yielded only two escapes.

Much to the chagrin of the Frazee fans and to the television cameramen on hand to film him, the Bulldogs forfeited to Matt Nagel at 152. Nagel set a record later on Saturday by winning his fifth state title.

The move was a tactical one for Paynesville, which wanted to use Glenz and Meagher at 160 and 171, where they had a chance to win. The Bulldogs couldn't afford to have Nagel beat either Glenz or Meagher and had no one else weighed in on Saturday to wrestle at 152.

"We felt that's what we had to do to win," said Vagle of the forfeit. "We had to have Glenz and Meagher at 160 and 171 to have a chance."

"We want to save him for a fifth title," joked Vagle.

The Bulldogs also lost several close decisions to the Hornets. Adam Christian barely missed a third-period headlock that would have upset the fifth-place finisher at 112. Nathan Glenz lost 7-1 to the third-place finisher at 119.

"We've got good people up there," said Vagle, "but they're better."

Josh Schreifels lost 3-0 at 145 on a third-period near fall, and Chris Rohe trailed only 3-0 entering the third period at 189 but lost 8-0.

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