Nevada wrestlers slip by defending champs

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

By Joe Warren

Nevada Daily Mail

Digging out of a 39-18 deficit, the Nevada Tigers beat the Neosho Wildcats on a tiebreaker in a wrestling dual at Wynn Gymnasium Tuesday.

The two teams tied in the team score 39-39, and Nevada won on the sixth tiebreaker, barely avoiding a coin flip.

The Tigers won the match because they had scored first in more matches than the Wildcats, drawing first blood in 10 of the 14 individual contests, thus knocking off the defending Southwest Conference champions.

The Tigers got pins in three of their final four matches, then cheered on freshman Dominic Habjan as he tried to clinch the team win at 103 pounds.

Habjan won his match by decision, 6-3, and that tied the team scores at 39, causing the tiebreaker system to be invoked.

"There weren't too many that weren't on their feet in the last match," Nevada head coach Kevin Huck said. "It's an exciting way to pull off the win."

After Habjan won, the two teams didn't immediately know who the team winner was yet, until the tiebreaker system was visited.

There are six scenarios that the teams look at to determine a winner in case of a tie, until a simple coin flip decides it.

The two teams were deadlocked on things such as individual matches won, takedowns and penalty points.

Finally, when it came to who scored first points, Nevada held an edge and they got the dual win to improve to 3-0 this season.

Both teams had six pins and one win by decision.

Wyatt Whitworth (130 pounds), Nick Nelson, Tyler Werner (160), Spenser Daniels (189), Ryan Herda (215) and Jerrod Alexander (Heavyweight) all won by pin.

Mason Heard (112), Drew Shepherd (119), Trey Miller (125), Josh Palmer (140), Cole Bond (152) and Lawrence Shouse (171) lost by pin.

Matt Kennedy was edged by decision at 145, 6-4.

"Even though the first couple of kids lost, they helped us win the match by scoring first," Huck said.

It was the home opener for Nevada.

Nevada will be in Belton for a tournament Friday and Saturday.

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