Reversal of Fortune

Comets pull off inspiring wins in dual-meet finale

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

OSAGE — AJ Maloy could have easily settled for the moral victory.

Down 4-3 in the down position with just 19 seconds remaining in his 220-pound match against Osage’s Caleb Ring, the Charles City junior could have make a token attempt at an escape and probably would have still received his share of post-defeat kudos and sympathies.

After all, Maloy was coming off a shoulder injury and hadn’t wrestled for two weeks. Then you can point out the would-be near-fall Maloy didn’t receive credit for despite protest from the Comets’ coaching staff, or the takedown Ring was awarded on the circle’s fringe when the referee ruled that his feet were inbounds.

In spite of all this, Maloy had other plans.

“I just told myself ‘I gotta, gotta go for it’,” Maloy said after he used some nifty agility to record a reversal on Ring with six seconds left, pulling off a thrilling 5-4 victory which set the rest of his team into a celebratory frenzy during the Comets’ final dual meet of the season Saturday night at Osage.

The victory was also sweet for Maloy as he had lost to Ring in their previous two meetings.

“I’ve had close matches before, but none like this where I had to pull it off in the final seconds,” Maloy said. “It feels good.”

The win gave the Comets a 28-26 lead over the Green Devils after trailing by as many as five. And when Charles City’s heavyweight Brody Tupy earned a 4-2 decision over Cole Mullenbach to conclude the night’s live wrestling, if you didn’t know better you would think that the Comets pulled off an inspiring dual-meet victory in front of a packed house.

Alas, the Green Devils were due two forfeit wins in the 106- and 113-pound slots, and when they cashed them in, they came out ahead in the end — 38-31.

“We always had a great rivalry against Osage, and (Osage head coach) Brent Jennings runs a great program here,” Charles City assistant coach Rob Pittman said. “Of course you hate him when you’re wrestling against him.

“It kind of stinks when we have to give up forfeits against them, but we took six to their five in matches actually wrestled.”

Pittman said that Maloy’s win will improve his seeding in the Northeast Iowa Conference Tournament, to be hosted by Charles City on Saturday.

“Another big win for us was from our 132-pounder,” Pittman said of Shau Landt’s 9-5 decision over Jared Popp. “He started the season at JV and we recently moved him up to varsity.”

Nate Lasher started the night off on a positive note for Charles City by pinning Brody Roll in 35 seconds in the 126-pound match.

After Landt’s win, Austin Staudt made it three in a row for the Comets, recording a fall in 2:21 against Noah Meineke in the 138-pound match. Maxwell Forsyth earned another fall for Charles City when he stuck Derek Fox in 1:20 in the 145-pound match.

Then the Comets ran into the Green Devils’ studs.

Osage 152-pounder Brock Jenning pinned Dylan Koresh (1:34), No. 1-ranked 160-pounder Tristian Johnson earned a major decision (16-4) against Brandon Childs, Justin Woods pinned Rhett Jaeger at the 3:42 mark of their 170-pound match, and 182-pounder Joe Malecek earned a major decision (11-2) against Alex Koehler (11-2) to make it four in a row for the Green Devils.

The run was stopped by Charles City 195-pounder Nick Jacobs, who earned a major decision (9-1) over Ben Mallinger.