Twelve-year-old Shane Oswald went into the Missouri USA Wrestling 2020-21 State Folkstyle Championship in Kansas City with a great deal of confidence. Even he could not have imagined it would turn out as well as it did. 

Wrestling in the 105-lb. weight class, Shane won all four of his matches Sunday. His first win came on a pin. The second match saw the only point scored against him as he won 8-1. The semifinal match came against an opponent that had defeated Oswald earlier in the year in one of his two losses on the season. Sunday proved to be different as Oswald prevailed 12-0. In the final, Oswald also won convincingly 6-0 against an opponent against whom he has wrestled since starting out in the 7U age division. “I felt kind of bad because I knew he had worked as hard as I did to get there,” Oswald said. That hard work came in the form of practice five days a week. 

“It felt really good to be on the top of the podium. I had never won a championship before, I’d always been fourth or fifth, so this felt pretty good,” Oswald said.

Also qualifying to wrestle at the state tournament this weekend was Athan Briggs in the 70-lb. weight class. Athan did not place.