This is one that will be remembered for a long time.

It will stand out in the annals of the history of the dual wrestling series between the Washington Blue Lions and Miami Trace Panthers for many years to come.

This dual has been conducted since 1979 and Miami Trace has won all but five of the meetings. Washington last defeated Miami Trace in a dual in 2014.

The Thursday, Jan. 18 match was held before a large crowd on the campus of Washington High School, and, this encounter was not decided until the 14th and final match.

In the end, Miami Trace emerged with a 38-30 victory, improving to 5-0 in regular season Frontier Athletic Conference dual matches.

The contest ended in controversial fashion after a Blue Lion competitor appeared to lose consciousness while leading his Miami Trace opponent, 8-0 with less than 10 seconds remaining in the third period of one of the final matches of the meet. The Panther wrestler won the match by pin.

Washington is now 3-2 in the FAC.

“It was a very close dual,” Miami Trace head coach Ben Fondale said. “It was 35-30 going into the 144 (match). Court House needed a pin in that last match. (Had they) gotten a tech fall (worth five points), we would have tied and gone to a tiebreaker.

“I think the whole town just loves the intensity that this dual always brings,” Fondale said. “Both teams usually bring it, but this dual was something special. I mean, both teams were really getting after it. All the teammates were into the matches. All the wrestlers were dead tired at the end of their match, putting forth all of their effort, using up all of their energy.

“Kudos to Coach (Louis) Reid and the Blue Lions,” Fondale said. “They gave it everything they had. They got unlucky a few times and we caught a few breaks. I’m not going to take anything away from my guys, either.

“I think both teams wrestled with heart,” Fondale said. “It came down to a couple of coin flips and a few scrambles that decided the whole dual. I’m just excited for the opportunity again and I’m excited for next year because I know next year it’s going to be another good one.”

Reid spoke Friday morning about the unfortunate incident with his wrestler at 132 pounds, Talon Freese, who was competing against Miami Trace’s Spencer Smith.

“He was sick. He wasn’t feeling good. He was just getting back,” Reid said. “The young man is okay. We got him back in the back and the trainer checked him out. We’ll take a look at him again today.

“Wrestling is a stressing, demanding sport,” Reid said. “His body was overwhelmed at that moment.

“That’s something that had never happened to him,” Reid said. “It was scary for us all. We’re very thankful he’s okay. His parents came back (to the locker room) with him.”

As for the decision of the 132-pound match, Reid said, “It’s at the referee’s discretion. I saw (Talon) pass out, but, the refs didn’t see him pass out. They could have stopped (the match). Yes, it could have been stopped at that point. I wouldn’t have had him continue. I would have pulled him immediately. If an official sees a kid go out, he’s supposed to stop (the match) immediately.”

Everything happened in a matter of just a few seconds.

“It is what it is,” Reid said. “First and foremost, the safety of my kid was the big thing. That’s why I didn’t come back out to jump back in coaching, I was concerned more about his safety.

“Yes, we were disappointed we lost,” Reid said. “But there were several other moments in the match, in other (bouts) if we had changed the outcome…we don’t want to pin it on that single moment. We always talk about there being multiple moments. We didn’t pin (the final outcome) on that single moment there.

“Because, if we changed the outcome in a couple of different places, we still could have won,” Reid said. “That’s something we always talk about. We don’t ever want anyone to feel like it’s just (their) fault.

“We asked him if he was okay and he said, ‘yeah, this never happened (before),’” Reid said. “We really didn’t talk about that. He didn’t think it was his fault, or anything like that. He did say, ‘I’m sorry.’ And I told him, ‘it’s not your fault.’

“For most of the match, we were ahead,” Reid said. “Unfortunately, we gave up some key matches where we were just gassed and exhausted.

“When our conditioning is good at the end of the year, we’ll be able to win those matches,” Reid said. “I’m happy with our effort. That was the biggest thing for us coming in to this was our team effort, our attitude and effort. We had some kids who actually outperformed. An example was Phoenix Williams at 215. I believe (John Queen) has pinned him before and Phoenix wrestled him to a decision.

“Senior Brady Rohrer picked up a pin for us,” Reid said. “Senior Tristan Vires picked up a pin for us. It was good to see that.”

It was senior night at Washington High School and prior to the middle school match, the team’s four seniors — Rohrer, Vires, Austin Cottrell and Pascal Wiesel — were recognized.

“Mack Parsley picked up a nice win for us,” Reid said. “He wrestled another state-ranked kid in Tyler Stevens.

“At 175, Brendan Peters picked up a big win,” Reid said. “It went overtime and he had to dig down deep. In duals like this, that stuff really matters.

“We’ll get back in the room and have our practice (Friday) and set up for our tournament (Saturday),” Reid said.

The dual started at 150 pounds with Miami Trace’s Asher LeBeau winning a decision.

Washington senior Tristan Vires won by pin at 157 pounds for a 6-3 Washington lead.

Washington state qualifier Mack Parsley won an 8-4 decision at 165 pounds, giving the Blue Lions a 9-3 lead.

One of the more exciting matches featured Washington’s Brendan Peters taking on Miami Trace’s Walker Glispie at 175 pounds.

The match was tied, 3-3 after three periods. Peters won the match, 7-3 in overtime, boosting Washington’s lead to 12-3.

At 190 pounds, Miami Trace’s Conor Harrison won by pin, putting the score at 12-9.

John Queen of Miami Trace won by 8-5 decision at 215 pounds, tying the overall match, 12-12.

At 285, Washington senior Brady Rohrer won by pin, giving the Blue Lions an 18-12 lead.

Washington’s Nathan Snyder at 106 and Bradley Forsythe at 113 won their matches by forfeit, putting Washington into the lead, 30-12.

With their backs pretty much up against the wall, Miami Trace began its comeback, starting with state qualifier Lyric Dickerson winning by pin at 120 pounds. The score was now 30-18.

Miami Trace’s Will Enochs won by pin at 126, drawing the Panthers six points closer, 30-24, with three bouts remaining.

At 132, Washington’s Talon Freese was winning very late in the third period.

With less than 10 seconds remaining, and Freese leading, 8-0, he appeared to lose consciousness and fell back on the mat. That allowed his opponent, Spencer Smith, to pin him, tying the score at 30-30.

Freese was helped off the mat by, among others, Washington head coach Louis Reid.

At 138 pounds, Miami Trace’s Brice Perkins won by technical fall, good for five team points and a 35-30 Miami Trace lead.

It all came down to the final bout at 144, with Washington freshman Wesley Gibbs going against Miami Trace junior Landon St. Clair.

In a back and forth match, St. Clair won by a 6-4 decision, giving Miami Trace the 38-30 team victory.

Miami Trace is hosting the McDonald’s tournament Saturday beginning at 10 a.m.

Washington is hosting its own tournament Saturday, starting at 9:30 a.m. Both events will feature around 18 teams. As always in wintertime, the tournament will be conducted, weather permitting.

Louis Reid began coaching the Washington High School wrestling team in 2001.

In addition to Washington’s win over the Panthers in 2014, Washington also won the dual meet with Miami Trace in 2012.

As far as Thursday night’s match, Reid said, “This is the closest one. When we’ve won, we’ve won big; when they’ve won, they’ve won big.

“Trace started their program in 1978 and we started our program in 1979,” Reid said. “There have only been like five wins for Washington Court House in the whole history (of the MT vs WCH wrestling duals).

“In 2012 we went undefeated and won the SCOL,” Reid said. “We were 10th in the state. That was (two-time State champion) Riley Shaw’s group.” Other Blue Lions on that team included Kole Trigg, Shawn Murphy and Skyler Hester.

Reid said the score of the match in 2012 was 56-8. In 2014, the final score was 56-24.

“That was in the State duals that we beat them (in 2014),” Reid said. “The week before they beat us.”

Blue Lions on the 2014 squad included Mason McCane, Chris Conger, Zane Nelson and Trevor Hicks.

“When I talked with (former Miami Trace wrestler and assistant coach) Jack Anders, he had said that, to his knowledge, one of the other (Blue Lion wins in the series with Miami Trace) was in 1988, with Shane Paul and Scott Mickle.”

In spite of the outcome, Reid closed by saying, “It was a great night. It happens. I was happy with our attitude and effort. Those were the things we could control and we controlled it.”