Caden Harrington’s road to a COC Tournament championship over the weekend saw him start the new year with only match that included just three-plus minutes of mat time over the first two weeks.
The Ozark junior would prefer to stay busy.
“I like wrestling as much as I can,” Harrington said.
But it was by design he essentially had a two-week break.
Due to MSHSAA’s limit of 45 regular-season matches for all wrestlers, Harrington opted to sit out the Branson Tournament in favor of the Winnetonka Tournament.
Looking back at his run to the 132-pound title Saturday and looking ahead to Districts in two weeks, Harrington is confident he and Ozark’s coaches made the right call.
“I think it was more important that I got my matches at places like Winnetonka, the (Kansas City) Stampede and (the Dan Gable) Donnybrook because that's the level of competition I'm going to see at State,” Harrington said. “Also, I knew the kids at the Branson Tournament would be kid I would see at COC.”
He topped the 132 field at the COC Tournament by collecting two pins, a technical fall and a 3-1 victory versus Republic’s Keaton Overcast in the final.
“It’s big to win this,” said Harrington, who captured the 126 title as a sophomore a year ago. “This is a tough tournament and a lot of good teams are here.”
Harrington’s win against Overcast saw him make an adjustment with the match, changing his approach from offensive to defensive.
“I got to a shot pretty quick and he defended it well,” Harrington said. “I started to realize I needed to change my game plan of getting a lot of takedowns. I switched my mentality and wrestled smarter.”
Harrington improved to 29-10 on the season and has 95 career wins entering Ozark’s duals this week with Kickapoo and Branson.
