Jim Thompson fought back tears and swallowed his emotions.

Tuesday was senior night, and South Whidbey’s head wrestling coach has worked with his three senior co-captains from the time they were seventh-grade students at Langley Middle School.

“Where does the time go,” Thompson asked as he shared a word about his four senior wrestlers.

Then the sentiment was bottled for later. Thompson turned his focus to the dual meet with Cascade Conference opponent Sultan High School. He yelled to his wrestlers to shoot, snap and turn. He paced along South Whidbey’s side of the mat. Call it tough love, but Thompson couldn’t hide his smile and pride after South Whidbey defeated the Turks 37-30.

“Going into the season, I thought [Sultan] was going to be the team to beat,” he said.

All three of South Whidbey’s senior co-captains won their final matches in Erikson Gymnasium.

First, Evan Thompson avenged last season’s district and regional losses to Sultan’s Kyle Weaver. The Turk junior wore a protective mask with his head gear. The 145-pound match would have been a great horror-film title, “The Mummy battles the Mask”; harkening back to Thompson’s taped and wrapped face that made him look like a mummy.

Thompson found himself down 0-2 early in the first period for only three seconds, when he reversed for two points. Then two consecutive technical fouls were called on Thompson for an illegal hand lock. Tied 5-5 with 1 minute left in the final period, chants of “E-T,” “E-T,” “E-T” echoed in the gym.

“I was just proud to show them, and win in front of this big crowd,” Thompson said.

Thompson and Weaver traded two-point takedowns before Thompson spun out for another two-point takedown and a 9-7 lead. The ref called another tech on Thompson to bring Weaver within one point with 7 seconds left.

Weaver chose to start down and the ref resumed play, but the clock didn’t start for another three seconds. Thompson held onto Weaver’s back and pushed him toward the Sultan bench as the buzzer sounded.

“It was a little scary,” Thompson recalled of the final seconds. “It felt like it was one of the longest matches of my life, because I’m sitting there and when the clock wasn’t running, I was like, ‘What is going on.’”

Coach Thompson, also Evan’s dad, was proud of the win, but noted some mistakes.

“I think Evan wrestled really sloppy,” Thompson said. “He made that much closer than it should have been.”

Ben Ross won his match in a less-“Rocky-esque” fashion. Sultan sophomore Jack Boyd hung with Ross in the 152-pound match for the first round, tied at 4-4. Ross started down in the second period, spun out for a two-point reversal, then pinned Boyd in 2 minutes, 24 seconds. Ross’ pin put South Whidbey’s team points ahead of Sultan’s, 22-18.

“When he was on top of me, even though I was near my back, I still felt I was in good position, I could reach out to him,” Ross said of his match with Boyd.

Ross contemplated the length of his final match at South Whidbey High.

“It went through my mind, ‘Do I want a third-round win by one point, or just come out in the first and pin the guy right away?’”

Van Morgen won his match hands down — Sultan forfeited the 160. Morgen smiled as he was approached to discuss the victory.

“It’s definitely awesome,” Morgen said of South Whidbey’s victory. “People wrestled really hard, really tough. It’s a good way to end dual matches and the regular season.”

Falcon senior first-year wrestler Pat Myatt lost the 130-pound match to Sultan’s Steven Leverett. The Turks’ senior captain pinned Myatt in the second period in 3 minutes, 16 seconds. Coach Thompson expressed his regret over not having Myatt wrestle earlier in his high school career.

Later, he reflected on the specialness of senior night.

“I’m going to miss all those kids, especially the ones I spent seven years with,” he said.

Cameron Schille recovered from a 2-6 deficit and defeated Sultan’s David Huckabone, 9-8. Schille denied Huckabone’s last-second attempt at a takedown that would have given Huckabone two points and the win in the 135-pound match.

Steven Sutton defeated the Turks’ 140 DJ MacKenzie 26-13 in three rounds. Pat Monell wrestled at 171 pounds in place of Jerimiah Robey, and pinned James Boglivi in 1 minute, 27 seconds.

Jose Chavez wrestled up from junior varsity to replace Monell’s absence at 189 pounds. Sultan sophomore Jake Naslund pinned Chavez in the first period in 1 minute, 12 seconds.

Sultan trailed 34-24, and with two matches left had a chance to win with two pins. Falcon junior Avery Buechner put the Cascade Conference dual meet away when he avoided a pin in the final seconds to defeat Jesse Castillo 9-8 to put South Whidbey ahead, 37-24.