The Helias wrestling team celebrated Senior Night on Tuesday, and the main action most of those seniors got came during the pre-match ceremonies.
That's because dual-match wins against St. Francis Borgia (70-3) and Hallsville (58-20) offered just 11 contested matches total, and the six seniors who wrestled picked up eight wins by forfeit.
Two of those seniors, Spencer Ainsworth (220 pounds) and Mason Field (285) did little besides walk out to the center of the mat to have their hands raised for two forfeit wins each.
"I wish Mason and Spencer would have gotten some matches, but (Borgia and Hallsville) just didn't have anybody," Helias coach Bryant Gaines said. "A lot of people - parents and family members - came to watch those guys, too, because they're seniors, but we couldn't get them a match."
"I guess I could have gone out there and wrestled with them," Gaines added with a smile.
Randy Salaz (113) and Will Farmer (145) also picked up a pair of wins by forfeit.
The other four seniors - Nick Carr (160), Matt Backes (170), Andrew Bennett (182) and Jordan Kemple (195) - got one win each by forfeit.
Carr also won by technical fall and Kemple won by fall as both of them went 2-0 on the night. Bennett and Backes went 1-1, with Backes' loss coming by fall to Hallsville's Hunter Tessman, who is ranked fourth in Class 1.
"Backes was really upset, but he wrestled one of the top kids in Class 1 tonight," Gaines said. "He wanted to do better, but once he got caught, there was nothing he could do. That was probably the only match that I didn't see going the way it did."
Logan Distler, who has missed the entire season after suffering a football injury, was also among the seniors honored.
Three other Crusaders went 2-0 - Evan Winder (106) won by technical fall and won by fall, Zack Carr (120) won by fall and won 14-5, and Dustin Luebbert won by forfeit and won by fall.
Nick Schnieders went 1-1, winning by fall against Hallsville at 132 after starting the night with an 8-4 loss at 126 against Borgia's Dylan Hellebusch. Schnieders got a reversal with 50 seconds left in the match and two near-fall points with :30 remaining to tie it at 4, but gave up a reversal and two near-fall points in the waning moments.
"Nick Schnieders wrestled a tough guy from Borgia and was real close to getting him," Gaines said.
Also going 1-1 was Colden Imhoff (152), won won by forfeit and lost by technical fall.
Gaines said getting two wins on Senior Night was nice, especially considering that "injuries are killing us right now."
"Two of our good guys are out right now - I hope we get (126-pounder Drake Winder) back Saturday, but my son (138-pounder Nick Gaines) broke his arm Friday, so he's out for the year," Bryant Gaines said. "We've got some younger guys stepping in, so we'll see how they do."
Helias returns to action Saturday at the Warrensburg Invitational.
"That's a lot of our district opponents, so we'll see what happens," Gaines said.