i heard something like that. something about him being escorted out by the cops. if that happened to me, id probably flip out too.

I remember Beau Tillman of Pratt, wrestling Jeremy Long of Santa Fe Trail at 119 pounds, sometime in the mid-90's when they were both juniors. Long had a tremendous headlock and very little else-- Tillman had about everything you can develop. Tillman is up by 8 or 9 points late in the match, absolutely monopolizing the contest, Ties up with Long and gets into the headlock that won Long 4 state titles. Tillman went on to three titles, and will always know that he had the ability to win that fourth one, just made an unlucky move.

In the early 90's, Chad Drake from Andover was wrestling in the semifinals at the 4A State Championships. Chad's father was terminally ill and was wheeled into the Coliseum to watch his son wrestle for perhaps the final time. Chad was ahead in the match with just seconds to go when a whistle was blown on the adjoing mat.

Chad, hearing the whistle and believing his match was over, released his opponent.

The opponent received an escape point and also a quick takedown while Chad thought the match was over, resulting in a one point loss for Chad Drake.

I believe Matt Bradshaw was winning by four points with 10 seconds or so left, and then he got reversed and put to his back when he was a sophomore...however he went on to win two state titles and be superamazing...so I guess it doesn't count as MOST heartbreaking, since he got another chance.

Jhris touched on it earlier, but I won't bring it up now, for I don't want to cry. No amount of consoling from CoachTwink's attractive wife could ease the pain of that one.

Most heartbreaking match I ever had. Well, I'm not as good as some of you. My most heartbreaking match wasn't at the state tournament. It was at the Tri-Valley League tournament (really a round robbin of duals) my junior year.

I had to face a Eureka wrestler named Clark Neill, who was a senior. Now, 3 weeks earlier at the Fredonia tournament, he had pinned me twice, both in the first period. However, I was studying his match with a Burlington wrestler before I had to face him. The Burlington wrestler (Manwaring, I think) got pinned pretty quickly, but I noticed one thing he did right that I didn't do in either of my previous matches with Neill. He tied up with him, Neill was struggling when he tied up. I said to myself. "That's it, I'm gonna beat him by doing that." By the time our match had hit, all the rest of the mats were empty, and everyone was watching our match, so the atmosphere was electric.

As our match began, I was stoked up. By the end of the first period, he had a 2-0 lead.

I started the 2nd period down. I immediately hit a switch on him and it worked to perfection. Most of the 2nd period was me trying to work a half-nelson on him, but he was resisting. He got called for stalling, so I was up 3-2!

He started the 3rd period down. He was working and eventually got a reverse on me to go up 3-4. I was trying to stand up and escape, but to no avail. I went out of bounds with 3 seconds left. My team was going nuts, Eureka's team was going nuts, the whole crowd was going nuts. I got back down, got immediately on my feet, threw my hips out, and ran all the way to the side of the mat, I turned to face him and the ref signaled the one point for an escape, but the other 2 referees who were watching the match closely said that I didn't escape! (It really was the right call... but still... UGH!!!! ). The crowd was so loud, you couldn't even hear the buzzer.

For the longest time (I'm a freshman in college now), I went over in my mind what I could have done differently, what if I did get the escape off in time and It did go into overtime? That was the one match that broke my heart. By the time I got back to my team, they were saying "NATHAN!!!! THAT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!" My coach said that's the best dang match he'd seen all night.

What's worse about the match is, I hadn't got a gold medal in ANYTHING since I was in 8th grade. If I won that match, I would have gotten a gold medal in wrestling and it would have been my only one in high school (I didn't recieve one my senior year, although I did qualify for state).

That's the match that broke my heart. Even thinking about it got my pulse racing.

Not that I spend a lot of time sitting around feeling sorry for Hoxie, but remember the Dykstra-Baker match in the semi-finals at state about 4-5 years ago................. I suppose I went and started some **** and opened some old wounds with that one.

i have one to share.

It was the semi's last yr at regionals at BVW. i teched the kid in the quarterfinals and was poised to face chino elsrode of olathe south (took 3rd @ state). Previously during the season i had lost two close matches to him and had beaten him my soph yr. we both definitely knew each other's style at this point.

Came out like a pro and got the first takedown, rode him and then got switched. i got an escape somewhere. then took him down one more time and was reversed again. to say the least, he is one squirrely son of a gun...just couldnt hold on to him. i took him down again.

by the third period i was down 5-6 and took him down for a 7-6 lead. with 40 seconds left, i was trying to ride him out, but he hit a switch on me and got the reversal. score was 8-7 and there was 10 seconds left in the match. I hit a switch and he is flat out on his butt with his arms wrapped around my waist, fighting not to get reversed. My face was buried into the mat and in my opinion i thought i had the reversal. i prayed that the ref would give me the call, but to no avail time runs out and i lose 8-7. one of the worse losses of my life.