COLUMBIA - Entering Saturday night's title match of the Class 2 state wrestling championships, School of the Osage sophomore Chase Cordia knew the only wrestler to beat him this season would be Odessa's Luke Malizzi.
Cordia made sure he only lost once to Malizzi, not twice.
Avenging his only loss in the final regular-season tournament, Cordia got his revenge against Malizzi, becoming the Indians' first individual champion with a 3-2 victory in the 160-pound title match.
"We knew we could win that match," Osage coach Randy Satterlee said. "We felt like we had won it the last time he wrestled. He was ready to get back out and wrestle him again."
Cordia won his first 35 matches of the season before losing an 8-7 decision to Malizzi on Feb. 1 in the championship match of the Odessa Invitational.
"I wrestled really well in that first match," Cordia said. "I really just had the same mindset going into this match as I did the first match."
Cordia scored the only takedown of the state title match with :43 left in the first period, scoring the two points just before Malizzi was out of bounds. Malizzi got the escape eight seconds later to make it a 2-1 match.
Malizzi added another escape in the opening second of the second period to tie the score at 2.
Cordia started on the bottom to begin the third period, and he got an escape with 1:52 left to retake the lead 3-2. Malizzi tried to make his move with less than a minute left, but Cordia avoided giving up a takedown as the wrestlers moved out of bounds with :39 remaining.
"All I had to do was keep him in the center of the mat," Cordia said.
Cordia was issued a stalling warning with :03 left, but he avoided a penalty and held on for the one-point win. Cordia finished the season with a 42-1 record and improved his career record to 82-8. He is a two-time state medalist, finishing fifth as a freshman at 138.
"It's an amazing feeling for our program to have a state champ," Satterlee said. "The thing is we have a lot of other guys in the room that are right there."
Osage brought five wrestlers to the state championships this weekend, and four returned home with a state medal.
Junior Jack Creasy took third at 195, winning both matches Saturday. Following a semifinal loss, he won a 17-5 major decision in a rematch against Cameron's Camren Hedgpeth in the fourth-round wrestlebacks.
Creasy then pinned Oak Grove's Zander Brinegar in 35 seconds to win the third-place match, ending the season with a 33-10 record.
"Jack had a great performance," Satterlee said. "This was his first time here, and that's always tough. He's solid, he's a great wrestler."
Sophomore Ryan Schepers took fourth at 132. He won by injury default against Park Hills Central's Kade Willis and lost a 5-3 decision to Monett's Karter Brink, finishing the season with a 40-8 record.
"His bracket was so loaded," Satterlee said. "There were two state champions in there."
Senior Rudy Escobar finished fifth at 182 with a 33-10 record. He lost a 9-0 major decision against Buffalo's Pete Herrera and then won by injury default against Kirksville's Tristan Gillespie in the fifth-place match.
"Rudy had an amazing tournament, wrestled way above his head," Satterlee said.
Osage tied Seneca for fifth place in the Class 2 team standings with 81 points, six points behind fourth-place Pleasant Hill. Monett won the team title with 194 points, followed by Odessa with 142 points and Bolivar with 88.5.
"After the first day, everybody was on the front side," Satterlee said. "Everbody made it to at least the bubble round. We had a great tournament run, we had them prepared, they were ready to go."
The Indians showed plenty of improvement from the 2018-19 season to 2019-20, which included winning the Tri-County Conference championship.
"We had two wrestlers (at state) last year, me and Ryan Schepers," Cordia said. "This year, we did a lot better."