Twenty seconds away from being the first Mount Vernon state wrestling finalist in more than a decade, Brad Rabenstein (215 pounds) led Eastmont’s Erik Magnussen 4-2 and was in control on a restart of his semifinal contest Saturday at Mat Classic XX.

He was going to ride Magnussen for a few more seconds, let him up and survive the final few seconds on his feet, where Rabenstein had been the better of the two wrestlers.

Instead, the Bulldog senior was called for locking hands a few seconds after the restart. Rabenstein said he thought the wrestlers were already neutral, which would have made the move legal.

Thinking the penalty point had instead been awarded for an escape, Rabenstein let Magnussen go for an escape, which tied the match 4-4. Magnussen got a takedown in overtime and won 6-4.

“It was really tough coming back from that,” Rabenstein said. “My goal was to win. I was confused. I thought he had stood up.”

Rabenstein rebounded, winning two straight matches to take third place. A late takedown in his final match secured his placing.

Mount Vernon ended up in 16th place with 32 points.

“It’s just a brutal tournament,” Mount Vernon coach Rex Febus said. “One point can changed the complexion of a match. It not only can, but it did.”

Rabenstein’s teammate Danial Osburn ran into another Eastmont wrestler, Nick Gale, in the heavyweight semifinals and absorbed an 11-2 loss, then was reversed in the final seconds of the third round of his next match.

He went on to finish fifth.

The Bulldogs won’t get much sympathy from Burlington-Edison, which had just one of its six wrestlers reach the second day. Enrique Medina (103) came back from losing his first match to win four consolation contests and end up fifth, winning his last match with a reversal in the final seconds.

“It was one of those things where nothing went right,” Tigers coach Kirk Hamilton said of the tournament. “Anything close seemed to go against us. We were ahead in half of the matches.”