Bishop England Suffers Takedwon as Wrestling Title Awarded to Loris
The State Newspaper (Columbia, SC)
March 2, 1999
Author: BILL MITCHELL, Staff Writer
Bishop England of Charleston celebrated a high school wrestling championship that it really didn't win Saturday.
Monday brought the reality, and the disappointment.
A recount of the scoring reduced Bishop England's 91.5 point total three points and dropped it below Loris in the Class AA-A wrestling standings.
"I won't sit here and say that it doesn't break your heart," said Bishop England coach Paul Spence. "But Loris wrestled well and the championship has to go to the team that deserves it the most."
"I wouldn't want to take that away from anyone," he said. "I wouldn't want it, knowing that we hadn't earned it."
The South Carolina High School League certified new results Monday giving Loris the team championship with 91.5 points and dropping the Bishops to second place with 89.
Loris, which had never won a team championship was not unhappy with its performance.
"Our guys were really satisfied with second place, evn though it was bitter sweet to lose by a half point," said Loris coach Mike Morris.
The Lions had gathered for a team picture with their silver runner-up medals. Morris took them up, much to the confoundment of his wrestlers.
"Then I said there had been a mistake in the scoring and that they were state champions," Morris said. "they freaked out and just went crazy. They took a victory lap around the halls."
That was not the way it appeared in Greenville on Saturday.
Bishop England's Ryan Sherrer pinned Cheraw's Brad Pitman in the dying seconds of the heavyweight match to apparently give the Bishops a half-point victory.
Spence admitted that he didn't know the score then, nor at any point during the day.
"I just worry about the wrestling and let the scoring fall where it falls," he said.
However, the error had occurred much earlier, in the consolation final of the 152 class where Chapin's Luke Bugenske defeated Bishop England's Jason Duty, 15-8. However, Duty was incorrectly awarded credit for a 3-point win rather no points for the loss.
SCHSL Executive Director Ronnie Matthews believes that a change in the anklets, which switched Chapin from red to green, was not properly recorded at the scoring table.
A hint that something wasn't right came to George Bugenske, Luke's father, at the awards ceremony.
"When they announced the medals, they announced Luke was fourth," said George Bugenske. "It should have been challenged then, but everyone just thought the announcer was wrong."
Even the wrestlers noticed the error and attempted to correct it. Bugenske accepted his third-place medal, and Duty accepted a fourth-place certificate even though it had Bugenske's name printed on it.
When results placing Duty third showed up in Sunday newspapers and on wrestling-related web-sites, Bugenske's father began to believe a mistake might have been made.
"When the web sites were wrong, I knew then that it could be officially wrong," George Bugenske said.
He brought his concerns to John Carpenter, a statistician for the Class AA-A web site. Carpenter in turn contacted Mike Frye of Mauldin, tournament director.
The recount began. Once it had been rechecked, the SCHSL contacted both schools.
"We're happy that mistake was discovered and reported," said Matthews.
Roger Hazel, an assistant executive director of SCHSL who was present at the two-day event, said: "I feel for Bishop England, but we have to right a wrong."
"Obviously this is not the first time it has ever happened and it probably won't be the last."