Mission-Charlo have successsful opener at Owen Invite

by Jason Blasco
| December 7, 2017 12:25 PM

The Mission-Charlo High School wrestling team utilized the Owen Invitational as a springboard to build the team’s confidence.

The Bulldogs established momentum immediately and they did it behind their star wrestler Gus Bosley.

Last season, Bosley lost the semifinal match at the 182-pound bracket but this year Bosley wasted no time establishing momentum for the 2017-2018 campaign.

“I would say it was a good opening for us and we had a strong showing throughout our team,” Bulldogs’ coach Lyle Cronk said.

“Obviously, it was nice to see Gus Bosley win it and I don’t know exactly what the total of his matches over the weekend were. I think one of his matches lasted 15 seconds, the semifinal match lasted 17 seconds and the finals match lasted about 43 seconds. Most of his matches were right under 30 seconds.”

According to Cronk, this year was the most kids the Bulldogs have had competing for placing in recent memory.

“That is probably the most kids I’ve ever had attempting to place in the Owen Invite,” Cronk said. “We’ve had some pretty good teams in the past. I remember the year we placed five kids. One year we had two in the finals and three other placers (in the past). That is a lot of wrestlers to have close to placing and if we had placed them, it would be phenomenal.”

Cronk said he was “pleased” to have several wrestlers competing on the second day of the tournament.

“We had a lot of wrestlers compete and fight back on the second day,” Cronk said.

“I was really excited to have five wrestlers in the consolation semifinal round and five wrestlers in a quality tournament. It shows a lot of guts on our team. We lost all five in the consolation and we were really close to having a breakout tournament. There were a few changes in that round and there are little things that we need to work on. It was great to see Walker Murphy, Bailey Weibel, Cole Gillard, Isaiah Alik and Chris Anderson. They all went 3-2 in a tough tournament and that isn’t easy to do at the Owen Invitational.”