Jays roll in win against Helias

Jefferson City's Jacob Brune drives Helias' Cole Hazelhorst the the mat early in their 145-pound matchup during Wednesday night's dual at Fleming Fieldhouse.
Jefferson City's Jacob Brune drives Helias' Cole Hazelhorst the the mat early in their 145-pound matchup during Wednesday night's dual at Fleming Fieldhouse.

Maybe the biggest surprise was there were no surprises.

The Jefferson City Jays entered Wednesday night's dual as big favorites against the Helias Crusaders in their annual matchup. And they left it as big winner as the Jays won 11 of the 12 contest matches in a 68-3 victory against the Crusaders at Fleming Fieldhouse.

"Our kids did a good job of maintaining their focus and their fundamentals," Jays coach Phil Cagle said as Jefferson City won its 28th consecutive dual in the regular season.

On the other side of the mat, it was a tough night against a high-quality opponent.

"That was a lot of experience against a lot of inexperience," Helias coach Jacob Wadley said. "And where we felt like we had a decent shot, we were going against somebody that was very tough."

The best match of the night came at 126 pounds where Corbin Howard of the Jays took on Nick Gaines of Helias. It was tied at 2 heading into the final period and knotted again at 4 with a minute remaining before Howard got a takedown to take the lead for good.

"Nick looked good," Wadley said. "It was there for him, he didn't hold back. If he wrestles like that the rest of the year, we'll be very happy."

Gaines cut it to 6-5 with an escape before another Howard takedown and a set of back points made the final 10-5.

"That was a great match," Cagle said. "Gaines did a great job."

Howard was battling a bit of an injury, but wanted to wrestle on his Senior Night.

"You can't take that away from him, Corbin really wanted to wrestle," Cagle said.

The Jays picked up bonus points in eight of their other 10 victories on the mat.

"You can't complain about that at all," Cagle said. "It shows how we battled."

The Jays won six matches by fall - Peter Kuster at 113, Tanner Irwin at 138, Logan Moriarity at 160, Jalen Martin at 195, Ian Coil at 220 and Logan Coil at 285. Only one of those matches reached the third period.

Two Jays won by technical fall - Jacob Brune at 145 and Rashaun Woods at 182.

"I liked the guys who were getting teched instead of getting pinned because that meant they were fighting to the end," Wadley said.

Zach Benges of the Jays was a 7-4 winner against Zack Carr at 120. Benges led 2-1 after one period and 5-2 after two.

"That was a nice win for him, he kept his body position where he needed to and he wrestled well," Cagle said.

Garrett Nutter at 106 and Christian Mayberry at 132 both won by forfeit.

Helias' win came at 152, where Jacob Schulte was a 4-0 winner against Zach Hurley.

After a scoreless first period, Schulte was awarded a penalty point and led 1-0 with one period remaining.

"(Schulte) pushed the pace, he was driving forward the whole time," Wadley said.

The senior then got an escape and takedown early in the third period for the victory.

The two had wrestled last weekend in the Capital City Invitational, with Schutle taking a 9-0 win.

"That's improvement," Cagle said.

Improvement is something the Crusaders are working for.

"I saw a lot of things we need to work on, things here and there," Wadley said. "Wrestling guys of the caliber we saw can expose your weaknesses and we're going to try to clean those up.

"They're a great program. It's our hope to catch up with them and get back to where we've been."

Jefferson City is back in action Friday and Saturday at the Hickman Tournament. Helias is in a quad tonight with Versailles, Marshall and Eldon at Versailles.

In Wednesday night's junior varsity dual, Jefferson City posted a 78-6 victory against Helias.

III

The Jays honored their five seniors - Benges, Howard, Logan Coil, Danielle Protzman and Taylor McNail - prior to the varsity dual. The group were sophomores when the Jays began their dual winning streak.

"They picked up a lot of big wins through the years to keep that streak going," Cagle said.

Protzman and McNail are junior varsity wrestlers.

"There is no shame being on the JV no matter what class you are, it shows your character, that you want to be part of a team," Cagle said.

Cagle said he has enjoyed working with the group.

"Our job as teachers and coaches is to be creators of good memories," he said.

Of course, some memories are better than others.

"They laugh when I get after them pretty hard and say, "That's a memory,'" Cagle said with a smile.