McCallie's Zack Ward upends Baylor's Claton Pettway on the way to a win by a pin in their 106-pound class match as McCallie hosts Baylor in a wrestling match on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.He may not have spilled any breakfast on his shirt or pants Saturday morning, but Baylor wrestling coach Ben Nelson's day started rather poorly.
Undefeated senior stalwart Ryan Parker, who has wrestled at 195 and 220 pounds this season, tweaked his back in a mid-morning practice. The bus that was to transport the Red Raiders to McCallie failed to show, forcing Nelson and his assistants to hustle wrestlers into their personal vehicles for the crosstown trip.
And then McCallie went up 27-13 nine matches into the evening dual.
It was an entertaining, seesaw match - something both coaching staffs had anticipated - with McCallie winning five of the first seven bouts and backing Baylor into a do-or-die corner.
The Red Raiders won 30-27, securing their 11th straight regular-season win against the Blue Tornado.
"It's always an entertaining match, and it's always tough (to lose) when you're in the match with a chance to win it," McCallie coach Mike Newman said. "We missed some opportunities."
It was only after Caleb Powell won the final match with a major decision at 160 pounds, polishing off a five-win comeback, that Nelson was able to catch his breath.
"McCallie wrestled great," Nelson said. "That's what you expect when you wrestle the Baylor-McCallie match - that amount of effort from both teams. They did almost what they needed to do to win."
Baylor's rally started with 132-pounder Jack Reynolds.
"Jack wrestled extremely well against a physical, strong competitor," Nelson said. "At his height and weight class, he's usually outmuscled, and he's become used to it."
Austin Atchley added a major decision at 138 and, in the night's featured bout, Michael Murphy bested Ethan Dendy 6-4 at 145. Freshman 152-pounder Mason Reiniche pulled the Red Raiders within a point before Powell's 10-1 major decision.
"Obviously through the heart of our lineup we expected wins in those matches, but we knew they were going to be hard-fought matches," Nelson said. "They've got a lineup of studs where we have a lineup of studs, and all you can do is hope your guys are more prepared. You decide it on the mat, and that's what happened."
Newman indicated that the last five matches were with fairly evenly matched competitors.
"When you look at those matchups - 132 through 160 - those are pretty even. Some guy might have a slight advantage here or there, but they came out and won those last five - won the close matches and did what they had to do to pull out the win, so credit goes to them," he said.
McCallie forged a 24-9 advantage and boosted it to 27-13, leaning heavily on pins from Judah Duhm (170), Trel Phillips (195) and Zach Ward (106).
Baylor didn't have a pin.
"That's strange for us," Nelson said. "It's something we've been working on, and it's definitely something we need to improve on."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.