Blair Oaks tops Warsaw in short night of wrestling

The Blair Oaks wrestling squad shakes hands with wrestlers from Warsaw after Tuesday night's dual match at the Blair Oaks gym.
The Blair Oaks wrestling squad shakes hands with wrestlers from Warsaw after Tuesday night's dual match at the Blair Oaks gym.

WARDSVILLE -The contested wrestling matches Tuesday night at the Blair Oaks gym were pretty compelling.

Unfortunately, there just weren't many of them.

Thanks to a ton of forfeits and a scheduling conflict, what could have been a busy night of action instead saw just five varsity and two JV matches held.

The night was supposed to consist of duals between the host Falcons, Warsaw and the Missouri Military Academy. But with M.M.A. having a scheduling conflict, the Cadets didn't show.

So that left the Falcons and Wildcats. But with Blair Oaks open at two weight classes and Warsaw open at seven others, that didn't leave a whole lot to be seen as the Falcons posted a 54-24 victory.

After two JV exhibitions ended by fall in a total of one minute and seven seconds of mat time, the varsity teams took center stage. Two of the five went the distance and the other three ended by fall, so the whole thing was over in slightly more than a half hour.

"It went pretty quick," Blair Oaks coach Tim Karsten said. "Our older guys had some opens and our younger guys got some of the experience they need, so it was still a good night for us."

The matches that were held were pretty even, as the score in those was deadlocked at 12.

In the first contested match of the night, at 120 pounds, London Gaydos raced out to a 13-3 lead after one period. He was leading 17-6 in the second period when he got the win by fall just as the buzzer sounded.

In a hard-fought match at 138, Alex Gaydos suffered a 9-2 loss to Austin Larson.

"We're still having guys working their way down to where we want them for this weekend, so Alex moved up a weight class," Karsten said. "Larson's ranked at 38 and Alex is ranked at 32, so it was a good matchup. Alex was a little sick this week, but he wrestled tough and it was a good match."

At 160, Riley Boeckman got a takedown and three near-fall points to lead 5-0 after one period. He then got the win by fall just 17 seconds into the second period.

Tanner Lueckenhoff suffered a tough 3-0 loss at 182 pounds in a match that was dead even for most of the time. Warsaw's Tyler Summers got a takedown with nine seconds left in the first period and an escape with :10 remaining in the third to account for all of the scoring.

"It was a good match, Tanner needed that to get better," Karsten said.

In the final contested match, Warsaw's Michael Bryson beat Chance Cumpton by fall in 3:44.

"It's the 17th and Chance only started Dec. 1, so he's doing great for us for only having that many days in the room," Karsten said. "And he's wrestling up a weight class, so he's getting good experience. He's learning a lot and I'm excited to see what he'll be capable of at the end of the year."

Winning by forfeit for Blair Oaks were Bo Thomas (126), Frankie Falotico (132), Logan Mudd (145), Brad Thomas (152), Cole Kemna (170), Corbin Singer (195) and John Karsten (285).

The Falcons were open at 106 and 112.

After posting the 100th team win in school history Thursday at Versailles, the Falcons got started on their second hundred Tuesday.

"We were excited to hit that milestone," Tim Karsten said.

It's not the only thing the Falcons have to celebrate.

"The new wrestling room is going to open the sixth of January, so when school opens after Christmas, so will the wrestling room."

But first, the Falcons will take part in the Lexington Tournament on Friday and Saturday.

"There's going to be 33 teams there, so it will be a good test for our top-ranked guys to see how they perform," Karsten said.