The weight of the LaGrange Grangers’ hopes rested on the shoulders of senior Troy Stephens.

Coming into the final match of the 2004 County Classic wrestling tournament, the Grangers trailed by one point, and they needed a victory from Stephens to claim the championship.

Stephens responded, pinning Troup’s Chase Jennings to give LaGrange a 39-34 victory.

Since that dramatic evening, the county meet has been a back-and-forth affair, with LaGrange and Troup swapping the title of county’s best.

Three of the matches have been decided by three or fewer points, and each time Troup and LaGrange have wrestled the intensity factor has been through the roof.

Here’s a look at each of the Troup-LaGrange showdowns since 2004:

2004

LaGrange held a 33-6 lead, but Troup came roaring back, taking the lead on a pin by Brock Barber.

That set things up for Stephens, who is also the son of LaGrange head coach Scooter Weathers.

Stephens ended the suspense quickly with a pin in the first period.

“There have been some great memories in the county championship, but that one stands out for me,” Weathers said.

For his part, Stephens said that night he didn’t want his team’s fate in anyone else’s hands.

“You want to be out there,” he said. “It was fun. It was the best time I’ve had in wrestling.”

2005

All they could do was wait.

After the wrestling was done, LaGrange and Troup each had 34 points, so it came down to a tiebreaker.

While the wrestlers and coaches from each school waited nervously, officials met to see which team had the tiebreaker edge.

The tiebreaker criteria worked in Troup’s favor, giving the Tigers the county title.

“It feels wonderful,” Troup’s Cody Longoria said afterward. “I thought we’d lost again like we did (in 2004). But we got it this year.”

Like the previous year, Troup faced a large deficit before storming back.

Jennings, who was unable to hold off Stephens in 2004, had a big win over Stephan Smith to get the Tigers within a point, and Brock Barber’s pine gave Troup the lead.

LaGrange went down swinging, though, with Taylor Myhand pinning Justin Parker in the final match of the day to force the tie.

“He did what senior captains are supposed to do,” Weathers said of Myhand.

But in the end, the night belonged to Troup – barely.

2006

For the first time in three years, the outcome was decided before the final match.

In the second-to-last match, LaGrange High’s Patrick Wolfe won by pin, giving his team an unsurmountable eight-point lead.

One of Troup’s best wrestlers, Brad Dixon, was hoping to get on the mat for the final match with a chance to give his team a win, but it didn’t happen.

In fact, with his team having already wrapped up the victory, Weathers forfeited the final match, and Dixon wasn’t even able to wrestle.

The final score – LaGrange 39, Troup 37.

“It’s gotten to where every match (against Troup) is going to come down to the wire,” Weathers said that night. “That’s what’s great about it.”

Unlike the previous two seasons where LaGrange jumped out to the lead, in 2006 it was Troup taking a 10-point lead with four matches to go.

The Grangers had some of their best wrestlers going late, though, and after Pete Lindstrom won by pin and Archie Dudley won on a forfeit, Wolfe got the decisive pin.

“These guys (from Troup) fought their pants off. And we did too,” Lindstrom said. “These guys, we’re just at each other’s throats all the time.”

2007

After LaGrange won the county title on Troup’s home floor in 2006, the Tigers returned the favor a year later.

With James Hembree winning by pin in the day’s final match to secure the victory, Troup prevailed 45-33 to take back the county title.

Troup held a slim six-point lead when Hembree took the mat against Stefan Smith, and Smith needed a pin to force a tie.

Instead, it was Hembree getting the pin and the accompanying six points.

Hembree, knowing he just needed to avoid a pin to give his team a victory, wasn’t wrestling conservatively.

“I was thinking I wanted to go out there and stick him and get six points,” Hembree said.

Troup won seven of the final nine matches to earn the win.

The Tigers rallied nicely after their top wrestler, future state champion Rashad Moss, was beaten in triple overtime by LaGrange’s Clayton Bryant.

“We knew we had to pick it up when Rashad lost,” Hembree said. “We have to pick each other up.”

2008

In a reversal of the previous year, it was Troup needing a pin in the final match of the day to create a tie.

And once again, it was the team in front – in this case LaGrange – instead getting the pin to win by 12 points.

LaGrange 103-pounder Xavier Phillips earned the final-match pin to give the Grangers a 42-30 victory.

In the biggest match of the day, seniors Bryant and Moss wrestled for the third time in four years.

Moss had beaten Bryant three times coming into the night, but Bryant rallied from a late two-point deficit to win 6-5 and give his team a crucial victory.

Bryant also beat Moss in an overtime thriller in 2007, but the 2008 win meant a lot more because his team won.

“If we’d lost, I wouldn’t have cared that we won,” Bryant said. “All that matters is that we won.”

LaGrange won eight of the 14 matches in 2008 to secure the county title for the third time in five years.