photo by: Kim North

Wheeling Park’s Maxx Taylor scores back points 12-3 major decision over Oak Glen’s Liam Flannigan during Wednesday night’s dual meet inside the ‘Palace on the Hill.’ The Patriots claimed a narrow, 36-35, decision.

WHEELING – Wheeling Park built a 15-0 lead early on, but had to hang on for a 36-35 dual meet victory over visiting Oak Glen Wednesday night inside the ‘Palace on the Hill.’

The Patriots won seven of the first nine matches – two by forfeit – in sprinting to a 30-12 lead, but the Golden Bears stormed back to capture four of the final five bouts to make the final score closer than it was.

“That was a fun one,” Wheeling Park head coach Danny Doyle said. “It’s always fun when you have two competitive teams. Both teams were fighting for bonus points. It was fun.”

A 1-0 decision by freshman Hunter Flanegin (106) and back-to-back forfeits for Bodie Cox (113) and Gabe Allig (120) gave the hosts a 15-0 margin.

“Hunter wrestled a good, smart match,” Doyle said. We’re expecting big things from him and he’s off to a good start. He’s going to turn a lot of heads before the season is over.”

The Golden Bears cut the margin to 15-6 with a pin from Kalen Eckleberry (126), but a 12-3 major decision by freshman Maxx Taylor (132) and a 17-1 technical fall from David Neal (138) bumped the count to 23-6.

Oak Glen used a pin by Wyatt Wolanski (144) to get to within 23-12, but a 12-3 major decision from Jake Carmen (150) and a 6-0 decision by Nate Hodge increased Wheeling Park’s margin to 30-12.

Parker Boyce (165) pulled the Golden Bears to 30-17, but Wheeling Park’s Isaac Sands (175) pinned his opponent in 2:57 to seal the deal at 36-17.

“Isaac came to me and asked if he could bump up from 165 to 175 instead of getting a forfeit,” Doyle said. “His pin was a big difference for us.”

Oak Glen closed out the match with pins from Mason Lamp (190) in 3:34; Noah Schmidt (215) in 2:53 and Richie Gudino (285) in 47 seconds.

“We knew that dual would be tight, but their kid at 106 wrestled a really good match,” Oak Glen head coach Josh Cornell said. “The two forfeits didn’t help, but we had a kid that was a little banged up that we kept out tonight. We gave up too many bonus points when we couldn’t afford to. That’s what it came down to. They got them when they needed to and we didn’t.”