Cowboys put two on medal stand at State wrestling

The Clarion-Goldfield-Dows wrestling team took five individuals to state wrestling this past week in Des Moines, and came home with two medal winners in Tanner Abbas (138) and Spencer Trenary (285). The team placed 16th in Class 2A with 34.5 points. Solon was the team champion after Saturday’s finals with 96.5 points, followed in the top five by New Hampton with 96, Assumption (Davenport) with 83, Creston/Orient-Macksburg with 79.5 and West Liberty with 66.5.

Spencer Trenary (285) finished the highest for the red and black, occupying the third-place step on the medal stand on Saturday night. He started the tournament with a win by fall over Ahrendsen of Union in 3:28, then reached the semifinals by defeating Van’t Hof of Sioux Center 1-0. He lost in the championship side semifinal, then won his consolation side semifinal (fall in 2:59 over Linderbaum of Solon) and third-place match (4-2 over Lape of North Fayette Valley).

Tanner Abbas (138) collected another state medal by taking fourth place, but it was far from easy. He opened with a 22-7 technical fall win over Recker of Beckman, then lost by fall to Geerts of New Hampton. He then went on a roll, taking three straight matches to move into the third-place battle with Carr of Solon only to lose by fall in that match. He truly gutted it out, wrestling his final four matches with an injury suffered earlier in the tournament. His wins included a 9-8 decision over Murphy of Clear Creek-Amana, a 9-5 decision over Rozeboom of Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley and a 9-5 decision over Vest of South    Tama Valley before he was stopped. If this tournament had a “Mr. Tough” award, he would have been a finalist for it.

For photos of all the Cowboy state wrestlers, see the February 23 edition of the Monitor.