COLUMBIA - It was a rough Friday night for the Jefferson City Jays.
The Jays entered the evening's action at the Class 4 state championships at Mizzou Arena with four semifinalists and three more wrestlers in the third round of wrestlebacks.
Roughly four hours later, Jefferson City had claimed just one win and had to console itself with the fact Jalen Martin will have a chance to wrestle for a state championship today.
Martin improved to 51-2 by winning his 195-pound semifinal with Francis Howell Central's Luke Diener with a pin with 16 seconds left in the first period.
The junior will now take on Timberland senior Chance Cooper (46-0) in tonight's state championship match.
Martin started his day with a 5-0 win in the quarterfinals against Liberty's Steven Marion.
The Jays' other three semifinalists all suffered hard-fought losses.
At 126 pounds, Christian Mayberry dropped a 6-4 decision to Lee's Summit West's Ethan Nielsen.
Following a scoreless first period, Neilsen took a 4-2 lead after the second. He stretched it to 6-2 in the third with a takedown and Mayberry got his final points on a reversal. But he could get no closer.
Mayberry had advanced earlier in the day with a 4-1 quarterfinal win in overtime against Park Hill's Weston DiBlasi.
At 160 pounds, Logan Moriarity of the Jays lost 9-3 to Francis Howell's Connor Flynn.
Flynn got a pair of takedowns while taking a 4-1 lead after one period. He got two more in the second, while Moriarity had two escapes, to make it 8-3 heading to the final period. An escape by Flynn was the only scoring in the third.
In the quarterfinals, Moriarity advanced with a 3-2 win against Raytown's Josh Drake.
At 182 pounds, Rashaun Woods suffered a 6-3 semifinal loss to Michael Aldrich of Parkway South.
Woods trailed 2-1 after one period before tying it up with an escape just three seconds into the second. A takedown by Aldrich and an escape by Woods made it 4-3 before a stalling penalty point on Woods made it 5-3 heading to the third period. An escape by Aldrich just five seconds in accounted for all the scoring in the third.
Woods had advanced to the semifinals with an 8-3 win against Rourke Penn of Fort Zumwalt West.
Peter Kuster (113) of the Jays lost 8-6 in the quarterfinals, won 3-2 in the second round of wrestlebacks and was then eliminated in the third round of wrestlebacks when he lost by fall.
Corbin Howard (120) won 9-2 in the second round of wrestlebacks before falling 3-2 in overtime in the third round.
Dennis Barnes (132) lost 10-2 in the quarterfinals and 3-2 in the second round of wrestlebacks to get eliminated.
Jacob Brune (145) lost 7-1 in the quarterfinals, won 10-0 in the second round of wrestlebacks and then lost by injury default in the third round of wrestlebacks.
Tanner Irwin saw his tournament come to a close when he opened the day with a 2-0 loss in the second round of wrestlebacks.
The event concludes today. The fourth-round wrestlebacks, fifth-place matches and third-place matches start at 11 a.m. The championship matches will start at 5:30 p.m.