St. Andrews’ Brad McKee, right, overcame the size advantage of Belmont Abbey’s Ian Kelly, and went on to win by pin fall.
The Knights won by forfeit at heavyweight and gave up six free points at 174, 184 and 197. Belmont Abbey won at four of the six weight classes where actual wrestling took place, but St. Andrews was only outscored 15-11 in those matches.
St. Andrews head coach Joe Baranik was pleased with the determination his team showed coming off of its best performance of the year at the Carson-Newman Invitational in Tenn. last weekend.
"The fight was good. I liked the fight," said Baranik. "We continued from Saturday at the Carson-Newman tournament — the kids wrestled with a lot of intensity (at that tournament).
"I told the kids if we wrestled with the same intensity tonight, I would be happy."
Casey Gashaw took his fourth straight win in a dual team match by wearing out Belmont Abbey's Colby Yates with a 19-4 technical fall victory in the 133-pound division. Gashaw is now 13-12 on the year, he leads the Knights in wins and there is some talk that he could go into the Division II East Regional tournament with a ranking beside his name.
Gashaw's tech fall win closed Belmont Abbey's lead to 6-5. St. Andrews' Matt Fletcher was pinned with 26 seconds remaining in the first period by Shane Summerlin at 125. Fletcher wrestled with a bandage around his head that was holding a patch meant to cover his left eye.
The blue patch with the small hole cut in the middle came off midway through the period. Fletcher had been hit in the eye at practice the day before.
"Matt was worried about his eye... when the tape came off, I think it effected him mentally, and the kid got him caught in a cradle," Baranik said. "I think we could have beat that kid, really."
Belmont Abbey's Jake Calvin (141 pounds) banged up his ribs in the third period, but still managed to hold off Dan Butcher for a 5-2 decision win, upping the Crusaders' lead to 9-5.
St. Andrews' Greg Todd knows what that feeling is like — and worse. Todd (11-10), Scotland's only wrestler besides Gashaw with a winning record this season, cracked three ribs on Feb. 4 against Darton, and continued to wrestle with the injury against Limestone the following week, and last weekend in the Carson-Newman event.
"We thought it was just dislocated cartilage," said Todd, who helped out at the scorer’s table during Wednesday’s match. "I just kept wrestling with it until Joe finally said, 'Well, you're not getting any better, so let's send you to the hospital. That's when we found out they were cracked.
"I'm used to getting hurt, and I was just trying to help out the team."
St. Andrews' Troy Baranik took a 9-3 decision loss against Ross Patterson at 149 pounds. Troy has struggled to a 2-19 record this season, and being the son of your college team's coach can bring added pressure under winning or losing circumstances.
"He hears it (from me) twenty-four-seven," said Baranik. "I've got to be careful, I've got to back off.
"I think it's more of a mental thing than anything else. That's why we took him out of the line-up last week, just to give him a breather.
"He'll be OK. He needs a redshirt year, and that's what we're hoping to do. He likes wrestling, but there's a lot of pressure, and a lot of it, he puts on himself. It's the whole 'My dad's the coach, I'm supposed to win' thing."
Brad McKee started the season at 133 pounds for St. Andrews, but could not get in at that weight due to the superior skills of Gashaw. McKee, now at 141, has wrestled above his natural weight all season, and he pulled off a big upset by pinning Belmont Abbey's Ian Kelly in the 157-pound match-up.
McKee was taken down just before the end of the first period to fall behind 2-0. McKee started down in the second period, but reversed Kelly. Kelly wrapped his leg around McKee's throat, but not before McKee got both of his shoulders to the mat for the pin with 34 seconds remaining in the second period.
"McKee, that was a great effort," said Baranik. "Moved up two weight classes. He weighed in at 141.
"Not only did he win, he got the pin."
St. Andrews' Mike Frazzitta lost a 6-2 decision to Belmont Abbey's Chris McClafferty at 165. Frazzitta led 1-0 in the second period after an escape, but he was taken down late in the period and McClafferty scored an early reverse in the third before getting another late takedown after a Frazzitta escape.
The Crusaders won last year's match against St. Andrews by a score of 35-10. Belmont Abbey is 3-12 this season.
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