After a tough opening day Friday in the Missouri Duals, the Helias Crusaders were looking to make things tough on their opponents Saturday.
They did.
"It was a good bounce-back day for us," Helias coach Jacob Wadley said after the Crusaders went 3-1 Saturday at the Missouri Duals at Helias. "We wanted some confidence going forward and we're on that road."
"I was happy to see the guys working hard and having some success."
After going 0-3 in Blue Division duals Friday, the Crusaders flipped that to 3-0 on Saturday. Helias defeated Kirkwood (51-27), Rock Bridge (45-23) and Oakville (56-18) to finish fourth in its division.
"The guys were happy to pick up some wins," Wadley said. "I was proud to see that, we haven't had a whole lot of wins and we would have had one more if we didn't have so many opens."
Helias, which wrestled without state qualifier Jacob Schulte among its four open weight classes in the Duals, then fell 42-36 in the seventh-place dual to wrap up the event.
Nick Gaines finished 6-1 at 126 pounds to lead the Crusaders in the Duals.
"Nick got off to a bit of a slow start this season, but he's starting to turn things around," Wadley said.
Zach Carr, a first-year wrestler at 113, freshman Cole Hazelhorst at 145 and Logan Distler at 160 were all 5-2.
"Once Zach gets some more experience, he's going to be a very good wrestler," Wadley said. "If you're a freshman at that weight like Cole, you are going to take some lumps because you're normally seeing juniors and seniors who have a lot of experience. But Cole is out there battling.
"Logan's found a couple of moves that work for him and he's making them work."
Mason Field, a junior who has been wrestling for all of two weeks and has already earned his letter, finished 4-3 with a pair of wins by fall at 195.
"He's an athletic kid that we're happy to have on the team," Wadley said.
Cole Czarnecki at 220 and Lane Rose at 285 entered the starting lineup Saturday and both finished 3-1.
"It was Cole's first varsity win and you could see his confidence grow after that, he was bouncing around and couldn't wait to get back out there," Wadley said.
Rose won a match by fall, in which he had already wrapped up the victory via technical fall, and finished another via technical fall.
"He's really fun to watch," Wadley said. "At heavyweight, you don't see many wrestlers capable of winning two matches by technical fall in the same day but Lane did (Saturday).
"It's great to watch a heavyweight who is always moving."
Last year, the Crusaders had a break of nearly a month after the Duals in Wadley's first season. This time, it will be just two weeks before Helias is back on the mats.
"I was happy with that big a break last year, I thought we needed another month of practice," Wadley said. "This year, we just need to fine-tune a few things before we get back at it and put those lessons into matches."
Helias is back in action in the Kinloch Classic on Jan 2-3 at Springfield Parkview.