The Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Cowboys and Roland-Story Norsemen wrestling teams returned to action on Friday and Saturday, as they made the trip to eastern Iowa to compete in the annual Cliff Keen Invitational at Independence High School. The Cowboys and Norsemen were joined by the host Mustangs, as well as Alburnett, Algona, Burlington Notre Dame, Carlisle, Cedar Rapids Prairie, Cedar Rapids Xavier, Christian Brothers College (MO) Clear Creek-Amana, Crestwood, Denver, Dubuque Senior, Fennimore (WI), Greene County, Harrisburg (SD), Interstate 35, Lisbon, Maquoketa, New Hampton/Turkey Valley, Osage, PCM, Pleasant Valley, Solon, South Tama, Tinley Park (IL), Union Community, Waterloo East, West Liberty.
Clarion-Goldfield-Dows would have exceptional tournament, highlighted by a tournament title by Linden Phetxoumphone at 120 lbs. Phetxoumphone would face off with Union Community’s Brayden Bohnsack in a rematch of last season’s 113 lbs State Title Match. Phetxoumphone would knock off the defending state champ with a last second takedown to win a 4-3 decision and a tournament title.
Charlie Campbell would take home bronze at 190 lbs, pinning Algona’s Brody Shipler in 49 seconds in the 3rd place match, while Caleb Seaba would place 6th, losing a 12-4 major decision to Burlington Notre Dame’s Kael Cook. JT Kelso would also place 6th at 285, losing a close 8-5 decision to Solon’s Grant Wilson in the 5th place match. Adrian Phetxoumphone would place 9th at 132 lbs with a 1-0 decision over Michael Poulette from Christian Brothers College, while Ryant Hartwig rounded out the top 10 finishers by placing 10th at 126, losing the 9th place match to PCM’s Kaliber Fry in a 12-2 major decision.
Other placers for the Cowboys saw Colin Sesker place 11th at 144, Ryland Morgan placed 12th at 165, Cole Wibholm place 13th at 106, Lucas Cayler place 16th at 113, Kolton Hefti placed 20th at 138, Paxton Redenius was 21st at 113, Ian Soesbe was 21st at 175, Mason Warnke was 25th at 150 and Traesyn Cope was 26th at 215.
Roland-Story would enter with their young squad trying to find their way, as Caiden Latch was the top Norsemen placer in 8th, falling in his 7th place match to Fennimore’s (WI) Cade Birchman in a 16-0 tech fall. Wes Hansen would finish 12th, falling just short to Tinley Park (IL) Joseph Zimmer in a 3-2 ultimate tiebreaker match.
Konnor Blume would place 16th at 106, Colin Grundlingh was 16th at 175 and Isaac Hall was 18th at 150. From there, Chance Georgius was 21st at 190, Brady Long placed 25th at 132, Robbie Larsen place 26th at 285, Noah Healy and Cyrus Wilson were 27th at 113 and 120, Blake Loof and Anthony Jones were 28th at 138 and 144, and Eike Hanson was 30th at 157 to round out the Norsemen lineup.
Clarion-Goldfield-Dows would secure a top 10 finish by placing 7th with 224 points, while Roland-Story was 28th with 82.5 points. Alburnett was the team champion with 348 points in the tournament.
Clarion-Goldfield-Dows wrestling returns to action on Thursday when they host Webster City and Hampton-Dumont-CAL in a tri-dual at CGD High School. Roland-Story wrestling returns to action on Thursday, when they compete in a Heart of Iowa Conference tri-dual with West Marshall and Greene County at Greene County High School.