TULSA – Austin Mogg added yet another chapter to his storied high school career here last week, adding his name to the list of El Reno grapplers to win an all-state match.
Mogg rode three takedowns to an 8-5 win over Tulsa Union's Cody Beisel in their 125-pound match.
“My first reaction was that this guy was a lot bigger than me,” Mogg said. “I knew I was going to have to wrestle my best to win. We both got tired and I knew it was going to come down to who was in better shape.”
As it turned out, it was the smaller Mogg.
The 119-pound state champion scored first with a takedown off a duck under.
“I got the first takedown and I got it in my mind after that there was not any way I was going to lose this match,” Mogg said.
Beisel, the state runner-up at 125 pounds in Class 6A, escaped to make it a 2-1 match. However, Mogg added another takedown in the final 10 seconds of the first period for a 4-1 lead.
From the down position, Beisel went on the offensive in the second period, scoring an escape followed later by a power double takedown on Mogg to tie the match at 4-all.
Mogg countered with an escape and added a 2-point takedown to regain the lead at 7-4. Beisel escaped to go into the third period trailing Mogg 7-5.
Mogg took the down position to start the third period, escaped, and then wrestled out the final frame to secure the victory.
“It was a great way to end a high school career with a win,” Mogg said.
Mogg's win was part of a 36-18 win by the West All-Staters over their East counterparts. Mogg's three points gave the West an 11-0 lead and his teammates built that up to a massive 33-0 lead.
“He (Beisel) was the state runner-up at 125 pounds and I knew he was going to be good,” Mogg said. “They made me bump up a weight and I thought it was going to be tough, and it was. He was big and he has been used to wrestling at that weight all year long.”
The East put on a late rally to trim the final margin to 18 points.
Mogg was the lone El Reno wrestler in the match as teammate Brandon Hileman did not show for the mandatory check-in time. His replacement at 171 pounds was Deer Creek's Casey Edgmon, who lost to Hileman in the third-place match at state.
Edgmon was pinned in 52 seconds by Tulsa Union's Joey Sheridan, part of the East's 18-point blitz through the heavier weights.