WARDSVILLE - Last year, the Blair Oaks wrestling team had several veterans who won several close matches to key a regular-season win against the young Versailles Tigers.
The Tigers took to the mat Thursday night with those youngsters now veterans against a Falcons team that graduated a lot of its experienced competitors, and guess what happened?
The Tigers picked up wins in the 50-50 matches and took advantage of three opens in the Falcons' lineup and captured a 52-24 victory.
The match, the first of six on the night in a quad that included Hallsville and the Missouri Military Academy, was by far the best of the evening.
"We didn't have near as many losses after last year as (Blair Oaks) did, we only graduated two guys," Versailles coach Shawn Brantley said. "We're much more experienced this year. We've been there, done that, and the guys know how to finish those matches."
The Tigers not only fielded a full roster Thursday, but that roster contained seven state qualifiers from last year.
"They are solid all the way from top to bottom," Blair Oaks coach Tim Karsten said. "We're still learning. We won five matches, but they got the rest. We had a couple opens because of sickness and injury, so that got us, too. But they probably would have gotten those anyway, so good job for them. They went out and took it to us."
The match started at 138 pounds, and the Falcons got things started with Bo Thomas winning by fall. After a 5-3 victory for Alex Gaydos at 145 and a win by fall for Paul Karsten at 145, Blair Oaks had a 15-0 lead.
Unfortunately for the Falcons, the Tigers came back with 52 unanswered points.
Picking up pins for Versailles were Adam Guinn (160), Willie Schotte (170), Ethan Gale (285), Konner Shewmaker (106) and Nathan Long (120). Add in three forfeits by Blair Oaks and a 12-2 win for Versailles' Rex Sheeley, and the Tigers were in business.
"I'm very pleased with how we've started this season," Brantley said. "If we stay healthy, we think we can get something done."
London Gaydos stopped the bleeding for Blair Oaks with an 11-4 win at 126 and Frankie Falotico ended the dual with a pin at 132.
The Tigers followed up their big win by ripping MMA 64-12 and routing Hallsville 63-15.
"My message all year has been that we've got to wrestle consistently, we've got to wrestle at a high level every time," Brantley said. "We didn't necessarily do that in some of the later matches (after the Blair Oaks dual), but when you get the big one first, it's kind of anticlimactic after that. You've got to figure out how to sustain that level."
Blair Oaks came back after the loss and captured a 51-25 win against Hallsville.
Falotico, Alex Gaydos and Logan Moore (220) picked up pins for the Falcons, while those receiving forfeits were Zach Wieberg (106), Haylee Beazley (113), Joey Conway (120), Karsten and Tanner Lueckenhoff (170). London Gaydos posted a 10-3 win.
"Hallsville is a young team, but they've got three or four really good wrestlers," Tim Karsten said. "We were there at one time, they've building up like they have to. They're getting more numbers.
"We're excited another conference school has wrestling, but a couple more in the conference need to pick it up. ... Right now we are one of the few wrestling conferences, and when we get everybody with wrestling, that will make us all better."
Blair Oaks and MMA then ripped through their final match. MMA was open at four weight classes, Blair Oaks at three, and the remaining seven matches lasted a combined 11:01 - not even as long as two complete matches.
Conway (26 seconds) and London Gaydos (45 seconds) each pinned their opponent in less than one minute, and Lueckenhoff was one second shy of joining them, winning by fall in exactly one minute.
Also getting pins were Thomas, Paul Karsten, Riley Boeckman (160 pounds) and Moore. Winning by forfeit were Wieberg, Beazley, Falotico and Alex Gaydos.
"We've got some freshmen and sophomores doing their best, so we're working toward districts," Tim Karsten said. "All four of these schools are in the same district, so this has a lot to do with seeding. We'll see how much we can improve by district time."
Both Gaydos brothers, Falotico and Paul Karsten all went 3-0 on the night.
"They did a good job and those are the ones we were counting on," Tim Karsten said. "The others ones, we just said, "Go out there and do your best.' And some of them were doing well until they made some little mistake, and that happens. They've got to learn when to not relax."
The Falcons return to action Saturday at the Union Tournament.