Neither illness nor its opponents could slow down the Jefferson City wrestling team on the first night of the Missouri Duals.
Shaking off the flu, the Jays opened the two-day event at Helias with a 60-12 win against Ozark and a 51-18 victory against Eureka. Sandwiched in between was their bye in the seven-round event, meaning they'll have four straight duals today before another for the medal round.
"The kids did a good job," Jefferson City coach Phil Cagle said. "A lot of them are sick, they've got that Influenza A the schools are having. A couple of them missed practice this week, but they wanted to wrestle. We gave them the opportunity because they're such good kids and work really hard, so you don't want to take things away from them."
The Jays are open at 106 pounds for the event, so they fell behind Ozark 6-0 before ripping off 33 unanswered points to take control and cruised from there.
After their break, the Jays held a slim 15-12 lead against Eureka after the first six weight classes. But they won seven of the final eight matches - the only loss being the forfeit at 106 - and they rolled to the win.
"We had a lot of coaches tell us today, "You're really fundamental,'" Cagle said. "That's the best compliment you can get for the kids, for them to be fundamental and sound."
As opposed to the first dual, where many of the matches were done in a flash, the Jays had to work harder for wins against Eureka.
"We had to wrestle - we had to go the six minutes," Cagle said. "We're always talking to our kids about getting bonus points, and that's what some of them did. That's what makes the difference."
On the day, 10 of the Jays' 13 wrestlers went 2-0.
"We feel really good about that, but we're not ever going to be satisfied," Cagle said. "We tell the kids all the time, Arrogance gets you beat.' You've got to stay humble and keep working hard."
Jefferson City had three wrestlers win both of their matches by fall - Logan Moriarity at 160, Zach Hurley at 145 and Corbin Howard at 126. Four Jays picked up a pin and a win by decision - Tyler Bise (138), Rashaun Woods (170), Jalen Martin (195) and Ian Coil (220).
Peter Kuster (113) and Logan Coil (285) both got a win by fall and a forfeit.
Dennis Barnes (120) and Christian Mayberry (132) both won against Ozark and lost to Eureka, with Barnes falling 4-0 to Kyran Hagan and Mayberry losing 5-2 to Alec Hagan.
"Dennis Barnes and Christian Mayberry wrestled state finalists in the Hagan boys - those were some great matches," Cagle said. "Dennis let (Kyran Hagan) have all the points because Dennis was being aggressive. That's perfect for this time of the year. We'll learn from that and get better from that."
The event resumes at 9 a.m. today, with the Jays' first opponent being Omaha (Neb.) Burke.
"They're a fine team," Cagle said. "... You hope that the guys don't get sicker overnight and you hope they make weight in the morning, because we've got a couple struggling with weight."
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