The video starts out normally — two high school wrestlers tussling and trying to outwit their opponents at a statewide tournament.
Then that match in the foreground becomes much less interesting.
As if a starter pistol had just been fired, a Cobb County high school wrestler appears from the right side of the screen bounding across the mat and tackles the competitor who’d just bested him.
Staff, parents, people from the stands all swarm the fighting teens.
The scuffle between Osborne High's Chanceller Jones and Pope High's Jordan Conley was captured on video by wrestling website Trackwrestling.com.
The video picks up in the moments after their Class 6A, 170-pound bout for third place had just ended. Conley earned the victory after a controversial call in the last seconds.
Jones mistakenly thought the referee had awarded him the match-winning point and not Conley, according to the Trackwrestling.com story. When he realized he wasn't the winner, Jones left the mat without shaking the hand of his fellow Cobb competitor. Soon after, he charged.
“He got me pretty good, but I think I was able to face up right before he got me,” Conley told the website. “No bumps, no bruises, nothing.”
Credit: Trackingwrestling.com
Credit: Trackingwrestling.com
This was the third time Conley has beaten Jones by one point this season.
The website said Jones was on course to become his school’s first state medalist in more than a decade before being disqualified because of the fight.
But the two athletes worked it out.
“After the match, he took a minute to calm down and I went and talked to his family and they all apologized and he shook my hand,” Conley said.
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