Crestwood wrestling team wins five duals at Independence

CRESCO - The Crestwood varsity wrestling team proved its strength on Dec. 19 at the Independence Duals as the Cadets won all five duals to capture first place and improve its dual meet record to 10-1.

Crestwood hammered Cedar Falls, 54-24; edged Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, 36-31; beat Independence, 36-29; crushed East Waterloo, 67-12; and smashed Charles City, 64-12.

Coach Keith Slifka was pleased with the way his squad competed.

“We wrestled five good duals at Independence,” Slifka said. “We started off with Class 3A Cedar Falls, who has some good wrestlers on their team. That was a good start for us. Each time we get on the mat, I’m hoping to see some improvement and I’m seeing that.

“Our guys took on Clarion-Goldfield-Dows and Independence in the next two duals and we won each dual by five and seven points respectively. We had to earn each win. Those were both good duals and we needed that.

“We won easily against Waterloo East, who struggled to fill their weight classes. The final dual was against Charles City, who is dealing with injuries and illnesses. Most of our kids had five matches on the day. Our JV kids and the girl wrestlers also got some matches in last week, which was good to see,” Slifka said.