OSAGE | The Charles City wrestling team came up just short of a trip to the Class 2A state duals on Tuesday.

The eighth-ranked (IWCOA) Comets stormed back from a 20-point deficit to defeat No. 15 Crestwood 38-34 in their first dual of the night before falling to seventh-ranked New Hampton 48-32 in the final round.

Congratulations to New Hampton, Charles City coach Kevin Wedeking said. Theyre a great team and they have a little more depth. They went to work on us and they succeeded but I liked that our kids kept fighting.

While Wedeking was proud of how his team kept fighting against the Chickasaws who recorded nine pins in a 51-24 victory over Iowa Falls-Alden in their opening dual the Comets showed they could perform under pressure against Crestwood.

The Comets (18-8) trailed Crestwood 25-5 after six weights before junior Brandon Childs started a string of six consecutive victories by Charles City wrestlers with an 8-5 decision over Neil Clement at 152.

Following wins by Andrew Koresh (160), Tanner Peterson (170), Alex Koehler (182), Nick Jacobs (195) and AJ Maloy (220), the Comets turned the deficit into a 38-25 lead on the Cadets.

We knew that Cresco was going to be tough, Wedeking said. We knew we had them at the upper weights. We just had to keep it as close as we could and hope to get on a roll.

Against New Hampton, the Comets picked up a technical fall from fourth-ranked (132) Austin Staudt who also won by technical fall in his match against Crestwoods Owen Ellingson against Carter Stochl, an 8-2 decision from Jake Niichel at 145 against Ryan Gorman and a fall in 2:45 from Childs at 152 against Drew Boeding to pull within 18-14 through six weights.

Following back-to-back pins that allowed the Chickasaws to build a 30-14 lead through 170 pounds, Charles City got back-to-back pins from Koehler and Jacobs in 36 and 24 seconds, respectively, that brought Charles City to within 30-26.

Noah Hopp helped build New Hamptons lead back to 36-26 with a fall in 3:13 against Charles Citys Luke Hillegas before the Comets Brody Tupy closed the gap to 36-32 with a fall in 3:47 over Lincoln Weber at 285.

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Comets fall short of trip to state duals