ARNOLD • The argument over the best wrestling team in St. Louis has a new contender.
Edwardsville turned in the best showing by an area team in the 16-team Ron Sauer Wrestling Tournament Friday and Saturday at Fox. The Tigers muscled by area perennials Seckman and Holt on their way to a showdown with Kansas City-area power Staley in the final.
Edwardsville's only slip -- and it was an ever-so-slight slip -- came in the championship where it lost a 31-30 heartbreaker. The Tigers rallied from a 28-6 deficit to give Staley a scare in the final.
If there had been style points, James Mosher might have pulled the Tigers even or earned them a win. Wrestling at 138 pounds, Mosher delivered a 55-second pin in the final match of the two-day event to get Edwardsville to within a point of Staley.
"I just went out there and did my best," said the junior, who went 4-1 at the tournament to bump his season mark to 9-1.
Seckman defeated Holt 40-30 to finish third in the tournament, and Eureka knocked off Northwest 46-27 in the fifth-place match.
Edwardsville finished with a rush in the championship dual with Staley, an up-and-coming program carved out of part of wrestling powerhouse Oak Park's old territory. The Tigers won the final four matches -- all on pins. Sam Andresen pinned in 2 minutes, 29 seconds at 120 pounds, Haydon Grammer in 4:28 at 126, Dillon Siloben in 2:36 at 132 and, finally, Mosher in 55 seconds at 138.
"Everybody fought pretty hard," Mosher said.
As far as Edwardsville coach Jon Wagner was concerned the Staley dual was a win that got away. In a five-match stretch, there were four matches where the Tigers were within a whisker of a win. Two of those were overtime losses, with the toughest coming at 170 pounds where Will Velez lost 3-1 after a stalling penalty down the stretch sent the match into overtime.
"I guess I lost that match," Wagner said. "I called a timeout (to discuss last-minute strategy) and he did exactly when I told him to do."
The other overtime loss came after Edwardsville's Shane Hunt was penalized a point for getting his hand hooked in the top of a Staley wrestler's singlet with 18 seconds left in regulation.
"It was unfortunate," Wagner said of the close calls that went the other way.
The Tigers will wrestle Thursday at home against Belleville West and Saturday at the Minooka Duals in the Chicago suburbs.
