Comanche wrestling celebrates Senior Night

Comanche wrestling fell just shy of defeating Duncan on Senior Night with the Demons taking a 35-34 win on Feb. 4.

It came down to the final match. Duncan was up 35-30 leaving Comanche’s Aaron Stengle needing a technical fall to tie and a pin to win. Stengle had a dominating performance but fell short of the technical fall with a 14-2 win.

The match wrapped up a back-and-forth battle between the Indians and the Demons. 

Jared Aker of Comanche opened with a forfeit win at 165 to give Comanche the early lead. Erik Roy followed with a controversial overtime loss at 175. Roy’s match was tied at 6-all at the end of regulation. The referee awarded Duncan’s Izaya Felix a takedown at the overtime buzzer. Comanche coaches protested the score but after several minutes of discussion, the referee did award the win to the Duncan wrestler.

A forfeit at 190 pounds by Comanche gave the Demons the team lead for the first time. Kanon Clift followed with a 14-0 major decision to give the Indians a 10-9 lead. Justin Mann followed with a hard-fought 1-0 win at 285 pounds as he secured an escape in the third period to push the lead to four points.

A forfeit by the Indians at 106 pounds, however, allowed the Demons to retake the lead by two points.

Comanche’s Aidan Frye got the lead back at 113 pounds with an 18-0 technical fall to swing the score back in the Indians’ favor at 18-15.

Gage Jessen extended the lead as he made quick work of his opponent at 126 pounds, picking up a pin in less than a minute and extending Comanche’s lead to 24-15.

Duncan would answer with 10 points with a major decision at 126 pounds and a pin at 132 as Matt Hunt and Hayden Dugan took the losses for Comanche. The two wins gave the Demons a 25-24 advantage.

Comanche senior Legend Yates then picked up a pin at 137 pounds with 25 seconds left in the first period, giving the Indians the lead back at 30-25.

Duncan, however, would pick up a pin and a major decision at 144 pounds and 150 pounds as Kasyn Doss and Klayton Smith took the losses, swinging the team score to 35-30 in favor of Duncan with one match to go.

Comanche also received its official regional wrestling assignments for next week. The girls will travel to Cache for the 5A West regional on Feb. 17-18. The boys will go to Kingfisher for the Class 3A West regional on Feb. 21-22. The top five finishers in each weight class will qualify for the state tournament in Oklahoma City the following week.