The Jefferson City Jays are taking overachieving to a new level.
Without a senior in the starting lineup Tuesday night, Jefferson City remained undefeated in duals this season with victories against Rockhurst (35-33) and Rock Bridge (45-25) at Fleming Fieldhouse.
"We overachieved," said Jays coach Phil Cagle, who celebrated his birthday Tuesday. "It's what we talked about when I first got here, overachieving. We're a bunch of average guys who work hard and we won these two duals because we overachieved."
The Jays, now 8-0 in the regular season, had some anxious moments in the first dual against the Hawklets.
"Rockhurst has a really good team and we didn't match up with them very well," Cagle said. "We knew it would be close."
With the dual starting at 126 pounds, Jefferson City won five of the first six matches to take a 29-3 lead. But then Rockhurst got to the meat of its lineup and the comeback began.
"They had some very good big guys and a couple of tough guys at 106 and 113," Cagle said.
The Hawklets won six straight matches to take a 33-29 lead with one bout to go. At 120, Corbin Howard needed to get a major decision to tie it or win by technical fall or by fall to win the dual for the Jays.
It didn't take long. Howard scored an early takedown and got Andre Putman of the Hawklets on his back to win by fall in just :29.
"There wasn't any doubt who was in control of the match," Cagle said. "Corbin did a great job."
The tight finish may have provided a spark for the dual against Rock Bridge as Jefferson City won nine of the 14 matches.
"Our kids fought hard, we just made some mistakes against Rockhurst that cost us some big points," Cagle said. "But we learned from it."
The highlight match of the night came at 145, where Logan Moriarity of Jefferson City (fourth at 120 last year) squared off against Sam Crane of Rock Bridge (second at 138).
The match was tied at 3 after one period and at 5 after two. Moriarity got the tying point via penalty late in the period. In the third period, Moriarity took the lead on a let-up escape, then kept himself out of trouble the rest of the match. He got a second penalty point with :33 remaining to make the final 7-5.
"Logan keeps surprising me by what he can do," Cagle said. "When you wrestle someone as good as Crane, you have to keep good body position. You just can't take chances, you have to have confidence.
"Crane is a great kid and he handled that with class."
Moriarity was 2-0 on the night, winning by fall in 1:05 against Rockhurst.
At 126, Christian Mayberry was the top scorer for the Jays in the duals. The freshman won his match against Rockhurst by technical fall, then won by fall in just :20 against Rock Bridge.
"He's got pretty good workout partners in Corbin Howard and Charlie Kusick, our JV 126-pounder," Cagle said. "We emphasize working hard and doing things right in the practice room."
At 170, Jalen Martin was 2-0 for the Jays, winning 6-5 and by fall.
In the third dual Tuesday, Rock Bridge topped Rockhurst 42-40.
Jefferson City is back in action Friday and Saturday when it hosts the 12-team Capital City Invitational.
In Tuesday's junior varsity duals, Jefferson City doubled Rockhurst (54-27) and rolled past Rock Bridge (65-6).