Osage wins Cliff Keen Independence Tournament
By Kristi Nixon
INDEPENDENCE — Individual titles for Tucker Stangel and Nicholas Fox as well as seven Osage top-10 finishes, including a pair of runners-up and a consolation champion, led to the Cliff Keen Independence Tournament team title.
Tucker Stangel earned two opening-round first period falls, a technical fall in the second period, as well as a first period fall in the quarterfinal before working a pair of close decisions in the semifinal against the home school’s Carter Straw and Carlisle’s Jaxon Miller by 3-2 decision in the 145-pound final.
Nick Fox, top-ranked at 170 pounds, had an opening round bye and then pinned his way to the final, in which he dominated Class 3A’s Caden McDermott of Pleasant Valley with an 11-3 major decision in the final.
The Green Devils scored 359 points to out-distance runner-up Alburnett with 293.5. There were 31 teams who scored in attendance at the meet.
“I’m happy with the overall performance this early in the year,” coach Brent Jennings said. “We have many things to work on with all of our kids. The good thing about wrestling high level competition is that it tends to show you where you are deficient and allows us as coaches to work on those things with our team.
“We would always like to win every match, but that’s not going to happen with a loaded field like this. We enjoyed our win (Saturday) but we will continue to look forward this week at the next challenge.”
The full story and more photos will be available in the Dec. 7 print and e-edition of the Enterprise Journal.
