Thacher 2nd, Smith 3rd at Keen Invitational

INDEPENDENCE - Fort Madison's Ike Thacher came up a point short of taking the title at 195 lbs. Saturday at the Cliff Keen Invitational.

Thacher, seeded 3rd at the tourney, won his first five matches to get to the championship match in the gold bracket where he went up against top-seeded Braden McShane of New Hampton/Turkey Valley.

McShane scored a take down 27 seconds into the match. Thacher scored a reversal for two points to tie the first period at 2 20 seconds later. McShane would escape Thacher's control 10 seconds later and would lead after the first period 3-2.

McShane chose to start the second period down and escaped 18 seconds after the whistle and then got the Hounds' Thacher back to the mat with 1:24 left in the second period.

Thacher would record another reversal just over halfway through the period to cut the lead to 6-4 going into the third period.

Thacher chose to start down for the third period to try and get a one-point escape and tie the match, but couldn't break free of the junior from New Hampton until there were just three seconds left in the match. After the escape made the match 6-5, Thacher couldn't get a scoring point and had to settle for 2nd place.

Hound junior Teague Smith took 3rd place at 182 after going up against one of the best wrestlers in the state in Burlington-Notre Dame's CJ Walrath.

Smith got a bye in the first round Friday and then scored two pins to advance to Saturday's Gold Bracket, one of four FMHS wrestlers to reach championship wrestling Saturday.

Smith downed Crestwood's Brock Voyna 8-4 after scoring three times in the third period for four points and the win, which set up the semifinals match with Walrath. The Nike senior scored three take downs in the first period, and despite Smith escaping two of the takedowns, Walrath would record a pin at 21 seconds into the second period for the win, sending Smith to the consolation side of things.

There he knocked off Harrisburg's Brandon Simunek with a third period pin and then pinned Voyna in less than a minute in the 3rd-place match.

Senior Daniel Sokolik captured fifth-place at 285 heavyweight. Sokolik, seeded 3rd for the weekend, also got a first round bye Friday and then won his next two matches by fall.

The Bloodhound lost his first match in the championship bracket on Saturday by Michael McDonough of Tinley Park-Andrew by a 7-3 decision to move into consolation wrestling.

Sokolik would win his first round match with a pin at 2:43 and then lose 12-1 to Korver Hupke of host Independence 12-1, which put him in the 5th place rematch with McDonough. Sokolik would score a pin in the first period to win and score 30 points of the 5th place finish.

Fort Madison finished the tournament 12th of 31 teams with 185 points. Osage won the event with 359 points. Burlington Notre Dame was 8th with 211.5.

Fort Madison sophomore Logan Pennock came into the match seeded 8th and finished right there. Pennock got into the Gold bracket after going 3-0 on Friday, but fell in the first round quarterfinals Saturday to top-seeded Amryn Nutter of Fennimore by pin in the second period.

Then Burlington Notre Dame's CJ Davis, seeded 5th, also got a pin over Pennock in the second period. Pennock would then fall in a second period pin to 10th seeded Keyten Jacobsen of Independence in the 7th place match.

Nolan Riddle had the other top 10 finish for Fort Madison, finishing 10th at 145 going 4-2 on the day, but suffering a loss Friday with a second round pin to Tucker Stangel of Osage at 1:18.

Conplete results from the event can be found at the following link: https://www.trackwrestling.com/predefinedtournaments/MainFrame.jsp?newSession=false&TIM=1670169838198&pageName=%2Fpredefinedtournaments%2FTeamResults.jsp&twSessionId=nednixdbvq