Falcons Top GSC, Fall Against WLU During Fairmont State Duals
January 16, 2021
FAIRMONT, W.Va. - The Fairmont State wrestling team split a pair of Mountain East Conference duals on Saturday afternoon at Joe Retton Arena to move to 2-2 on the 2021 season. Fairmont State rallied in the final two matches to earn a 22-21 win over Glenville State in the first dual of the day, before dropping a 25-18 final against No. 5-ranked West Liberty to close out the day.
Dual #1: Fairmont State 22, Glenville State 21
After the Pioneers earned 12 points with forfeit wins at 125 LBS and 133 LBS, Noah Kiszka put the Falcons on the board with a 3-1 overtime decision against Alec Fulwider at 141 LBS. Lukas Martin earned a forfeit win for the Falcons at 149 LBS to make the score 12-9 in favor of the Pioneers after four weight classes.
GSC pushed its lead to 18-9 after a pair of decisions by Jacob Puckett and Cole Houser in the 157 and 165 matches. However, Cade Moisey cut the GSC advantage to just three (18-15) following a fall victory at the 1:51 mark to score six critical points for the Falcons.
Luke Martin put the Pioneers back up six (21-15) with just two matches remaining with a 3-1 decision over Cory Hupp-Lasure at 184 LBS. Fairmont State responded with a strong finish though, closing out the dual with a major decision by Riley Gallagher (14-3) and a decision by TJ Boyd (3-2) in the 197 and heavyweight bouts to pick up the win.
Dual #2: West Liberty 25, Fairmont State 18
After the Falcons got a short break during the Glenville State/West Liberty dual, the Falcons returned to the mat later in the afternoon to battle the No. 5-ranked Hilltoppers.
In the final scoring, both teams earned 12 points as a result of two forfeits. West Liberty earned six points each at 125 and 133 LBS, while Fairmont State nabbed the forfeit wins at 184 and 197 LBS.
On the mat, Fairmont State was able to record points with a 6-5 decision by Kiszka at 141, before Martin follow up that performance with a 7-3 decision at 149. However, West Liberty took the final four matches (157, 165, 174 and 285) to earn the seven-point win – its second win of the day after topping GSC in the second dual of the day.
Fairmont State also took part in six exhibition matches before the day ended.
The Falcons will now prepare for a trip to Glenville State next weekend to compete in a Mountain East quad against Alderson Broaddus, Glenville State and Wheeling. Start time for the event is still TBA.
