Snagbreath I must disagree, I don't know what you think you saw unfold but I will tell you what I saw from matside.
Mr. Elliott was loosing the match 4-0. After being taken down and ridden the entire first period and being reversed and ridden the entire second period he chose neutral for the third period. In desperation he spent the whole third period wrestling very agressive attempting throws and throwing numerous crossfaces and being very physical with his front headlocks countering our shots. Edgmon looked as though he had been in a boxing match afterwards, in fact his nose was black and blue. That is just wrestling and Elliott was trying anything he could do to get Edgmon out of his game.
The incident mentioned happened with less than 10 seconds left in the match. Edgmon took a shot and Elliott locked up a front headlock using his forearm very aggressively on Edgmons face. Did his forearm hit Edgmon in the mouth ? Did Edgmon knowingly and on purpose bite Elliott - NO WAY - Did Elliott have teeth marks on his forearm - YES - I don't blame Elliott for what transpired and after talking to Tommy after the match and reviewing the tape, Edgmon did not purposely bite Elliott.
I feel the officials made a mistake with 1.2 seconds left disqualifying Edgmon. No one saw Edgmon purposely bite Elliott, the match was very physical at the end. A hard crossface can leave teeth marks on the person throwing the crossface. It is not like Elliott had a chunk of skin missing or blood drawn. Edgmon was penalized by the mat official without a conference with the other 3 officials or the coaches. In fact as the kids left the mat with 1.2 seconds remaining Elliott kind of shoved Edgmon and the official said it was over. The Goddard coaches thought he was going to DQ Elliott. As they came back to the center Elliott said he bite me and showed his forearm to the official and Edgmon was immediately disqualified.
I understand if a kid purposely bites someone he should be disqualified, especially if viewed by the official. However, wrestling is a physical sport and to DQ a kid anytime a tooth mark is present is going overboard. Should a kid be disqualified for an errant elbow or crossface leading to a bloody scene where his opponent runs out of blood time.
I am sorry for rambling but must stand up for my wrestler who was devastated by this event. It was a well wrestled match by both kids and had an unfortunate ending. I believe the teeth marks were a result of the physical nature of the match and not a purposely intended bite mark.
Also in closing for some to infer Elliott would bite himself is insulting and ridiculous.
Brett Means
Assistant Wrestling Coach
Goddard High School
