Lake Mills Splits at TIC Triangular in Osage

OSAGE — Lake Mills earned a split at a Top of Iowa Conference triangular on Tuesday night, rolling past Eagle Grove before coming up short in a hard-fought dual against host Osage.

The Bulldogs opened the night in impressive fashion, winning 10 of 14 bouts against Eagle Grove to secure a 50-18 victory. Lake Mills picked up multiple bonus-point wins, including pins from Conner Helgeson, Steve Brandenburg, Caleb Skogen and Josiah Kjeldahl.

“There were a lot of full matches in the dual,” Lake Mills head coach Alex Brandenburg said. “Our kids wrestled hard and came away with a nice win.”

After Lake Mills’ victory, Osage defeated Eagle Grove, setting up a marquee finale between two programs that have developed a strong rivalry over the past decade. Just one season ago, Lake Mills snapped Osage’s TIC dual meet winning streak that had stretched to nearly 70 matches.

The Bulldogs appeared poised for another statement win, capturing three of the first four bouts to build a 15-4 lead. Wins by Carter Ham, Conner Helgeson and Micah Helgeson gave Lake Mills early momentum, but Osage responded by winning eight of the final 10 matches to pull away for a 42-32 victory.

“I thought the kids wrestled hard and gave it all they had tonight,” Brandenburg said. “Despite the strong effort, our execution was not good enough to get the job done.”

Lake Mills still produced several highlights in the loss. Ham pinned Liam Lucas in just 30 seconds at 113 pounds, Micah Helgeson added a pin at 126, Steve Brandenburg secured a pin at 144, Caleb Skogen earned a technical fall at 165, and Kjeldahl closed the dual with a quick pin at heavyweight.

With the split, Lake Mills remains firmly in the conference title picture. As the season progresses, there is a strong possibility that Lake Mills, Osage and Nashua-Plainfield could each finish with one TIC loss, creating a three-way tie atop the standings.