The decision was going to come down their final match.
The Jefferson City Jays were sitting in second place heading into the third-place match at 220 pounds. Tekoah Sage of the Jays was facing Devon Byrd of Holt, which was in third.
The Sage-Byrd winner was going to decide who was the team runner-up.
The match was knotted at 4 until Sage got a takedown with :04 remaining. That gave Sage a 6-4 victory and the Jays the second-place plaque.
"Tekoah came out and got it done for us," Jays coach Phil Cagle said. "He had a great tournament, he lost just one match and wrestled outstanding."
Jefferson City finished with 273.5 team points. Park Hill won the team title with 320 points, while Holt was third in the 12-team event with 267.
"I was so happy with the way the kids wrestled today," Cagle said. "They did a lot better job today, they just went out and wrestled. They weren't thinking, they were wrestling."
The Jays finished with one individual champion - Jalen Martin at 195 - to go along with four runners-up, three third-place finishers and one in fourth.
"We wrestled well in this last round, we were just facing a lot of great competition," Cagle said.
Martin claimed his title with a 6-2 victory against Jacob Sobbing of Park Hill.
"Jalen came in and did what he had to do," Cagle said.
After a scoreless first period, Martin got a pair of takedowns in the second period to take a 4-2 lead. He then got two near-fall points in the final period to account for the four-point final margin.
The losses in the title bouts came against wrestlers ranked at or near the top of their respective weight classes.
• At 120, Peter Kuster of the Jays fell 2-0 to Sidney Oliver of Holt, ranked No. 1 in Class 4. The lone points of the match came on an Oliver takedown with about one minute remaining.
• At 132, Tanner Irwin dropped a 14-3 decision to Colby Smith of Holt, ranked No. 2 in Class 4.
• At 145, Gavin DeWitt fell 3-0 to Gavin Londoff of Holt, ranked No. 1 in Class 4. Londoff scored a takedown in the first period then picked up an escape point in the third.
• At 170, Logan Moriarity dropped a 3-0 decision to Canten Marriott of Park Hill, ranked No. 1 in Class 4. All three points came in a :10 span late in the second period on a penalty point and a reversal.
Earlier in the day, Marriott defeated Moriarity 4-0.
"Those were a pair of very good matches," Cagle said. "It turned out the rankings were right, for right now. Things can change."
Cagle is looking for those matches to pay dividends down the road.
"That's what we're hoping," he said. "We'll go back and watch the video, analyze some things and hopefully do a little better if we wrestle those guys again down the road."
Taking third for the Jays were Christian Mayberry at 126, Zack Hurley at 138 and Jacob Brune at 160.
Mayberry picked up two points in each period to defeat Anthony Michaels of Lafayette 6-0. Hurley won by forfeit, while Brune defeated Jesse Reser of Fort Osage by injury default in the second period. Reser hurt his knee on a takedown by Brune.
"It was unfortunate that kid got hurt, but Jacob would have finished that takedown and I think gone on to win that match," Cagle said.
Rashaun Woods was fourth at 182, while Dennis Barnes was sxith at 152 for Jefferson City.
Jefferson City isn't satisfied by finishing second.
"They're not happy they finished behind Park Hill and that makes me happy," Cagle said. "Our kids are competitors and they want to get better.
"There's still a lot of time to improve or get worse and we're planning on improving."
Jefferson City is back in action Wednesday at Helias. The junior varsity dual will start at 6 p.m., followed by the varsity dual around 7 p.m.