WARDSVILLE - Even in its 15th year since starting a wrestling program, the Blair Oaks Falcons did something Thursday night they had not done before.
The Falcons hosted their first quad-dual, competing against Tri-County Conference opponents Hallsville, Southern Boone and Versailles. Blair Oaks started the evening with a 64-6 win against Hallsville and a 63-15 win against Southern Boone, before dropping their final dual of the night 47-27 to Versailles.
"We usually do tri-duals, but we've got new teams in the conference," Blair Oaks coach Tim Karsten said.
Southern Boone opened its inaugural wrestling season earlier this week. This meet in past years was a tri-dual consisting of the other three Tri-County schools.
"It's good to see Southern Boone have a good, solid team like that for their first year," Karsten said. "They're going to cause some people fits for a first-year team.
"It took us two years to win a match. They've already won once."
Blair Oaks recorded three wins by fall against Hallsville to start the evening. The Indians were open in six weight classes, giving the Falcons an additional 36 points.
In the second dual of the night, Blair Oaks had eight wrestlers win by fall against Southern Boone, seven of which occurred in the first period. Paul Karsten pinned Cooper Mange in 22 seconds at 182 pounds, while Jayce Griggs wrapped up the dual at 113 by pinning Gage Banning in just 12 seconds.
"We were in good shape and we were aggressive," Karsten said. "When you have those two, you're going to win a majority of your matches."
Addison Canole (126), Kyler Griep (145), Sam Dudenhoeffer (160), Clayton Roling (170), Lucas Holtmeyer (195) and Kaleb Bisgues (220) also won by fall against Southern Boone.
The match that drew the most attention against the Eagles was at 152 pounds. Eddie Wells earned his first match victory at the varsity level for Blair Oaks, taking a 16-13 decision against Bo Varvil.
"Sometimes it's not how much you know, but you have to keep on fighting to get the win," Karsten said. "When you're young, you just have to get takedowns, or else you're going to get caught in mistakes. He has worked well on his takedowns."
Versailles, a fourth-place finisher at state last season in Class 1, fell behind 24-0 early on against Blair Oaks. The Falcons got pins from Dalton Bridges at 126, Caleb Meeks at 132 and Bo Thomas at 138 to begin the dual. Thomas finished the evening 3-0.
Then the Tigers went on a roll, winning the next nine matches, four by fall.
"Versailles came out and took it," Karsten said. "They have a nice, solid team, and we had a few holes. There was nothing we could do about it."
Griggs and Versailles' Zach Reed needed extra time to decide their match at 113. Reed was able to record a takedown eight seconds into the extra period to win 18-16.
London Gaydos finished the dual by taking a 6-4 decision at 120. The win was Gaydos' 100th career victory at Blair Oaks.
"We only have a couple more who can do that, because you have to wrestle four years to do that," Karsten said. "He's been a four-year starter. His freshman year, he was a state medalist for us, and he's working to come back and do that for us again."
Versailles posted a 3-0 record Thursday. The Tigers won 53-24 against Southern Boone and then picked up a 56-18 win against Hallsville. Southern Boone and Hallsville did not compete head-to-head.
Blair Oaks (2-1) will return to action Saturday at the Union Tournament.
"We have ACTs this weekend, so we're going to be a little short-handed," Karsten said. "We're going to be building up for the Lexington Tournament, where we'll have a full team and do a good job there."