It was a good, not a great, first day for the Jefferson City Jays.
"We won more of them than we lost and that's always a good thing," Jays coach Phil Cagle said Friday night after the first three rounds of the Capital City Wrestling Invitational at Fleming Fieldhouse. "Considering the competition we went against, it was a good night.
"But this isn't like a normal tournament, we don't seed it, we just group kids together and let them wrestle."
Jefferson City is in fourth place with 23.5 points. Holt tops the 12-team field with 38.5, while Lebanon is second with 26 and Park Hill is third with 25.5.
Two Jays are 3-0 after the first day - Corbin Howard at 126 pounds and Jalen Martin at 195. Howard won once by technical fall and twice by decision, while Martin won all three of his matches by technical fall.
"Corbin and Jalen both did some good things on the mat," Cagle said.
Howard and Martin are both 22-0 this season.
Christian Mayberry is 2-0 with a bye at 132 for the Jays, while Zach Benges is 1-0 with two byes at 120.
Peter Kuster at 113, Jacob Brune at 145 and Logan Coil at 285 were all 2-1. Tanner Irwin at 138, Logan Moriarity at 160 and Ian Coil at 220 were all 1-1 with one bye.
They were the first losses of the season for Brune and Moriarity, both coming against undefeated wrestlers. Brune dropped a 4-3 decision to Jesse Jeffries of Fort Osage, while Moriarity fell 10-6 against Jesse Reser, also from Fort Osage.
"They were wrestling state-caliber opponents in matches you would expect to see late at the state tournament," Cagle said. "But this is what we needed.
"We knew it was going to be tough. We learned some things and that's what we want to use this tournament for. It's all practice until February."
The tournament resumes with the final two rounds of pool competition at 9 a.m. today. The bracket portion of the tournament is slated to begin at 11 a.m., with the semifinals starting at 1 p.m. The fifth- and seventh-place matches are scheduled to start around 2:30 p.m.
The championship and third-place matches will start at 5 p.m.
III
Jacob Schulte won a pair of matches Friday to highlight Helias' performance on the opening day of the Invitational.
Schulte finished 2-1 at 152, winning once by fall and once by major decision.
Logan Distler had Helias' other victory Friday, winning by fall at 160.
Helias, which is fielding just eight wrestlers in the Invitational, is in 11th place with 4.5 points.
III
Jefferson City leads the team standings in the JV portion of the event with 29.5 points.
Northwest: Cedar Hill is second with 28, while Park Hill is third with 26. Helias did not enter a JV team.