Friday night was another in a series of learning experiences for the Jefferson City Jays.
And finishing 2-1 on the opening night of the Missouri Duals was just icing on the cake.
"This is just practice for February, we're going to say that the entire regular season," Jays coach Phil Cagle said. "We want to learn."
Jefferson City opened with a 52-23 win against Waynesville.
"I was surprised with the margin in that one, Waynesville has been wrestling really well lately," Cagle said. "But we got off to a very good start tonight. We had some kids wrestle some good matches."
The dual was a trip down memory lane for Cagle, who used to be the head coach at Waynesville.
"It was neat for me, there are a couple of kids on the Waynesville team that I coached their dads when I was down there," Cagle said. "It just shows how old I'm getting."
The Jays then dropped a 44-22 decision to Eureka before closing with a 65-16 victory against Father Tolton.
"We had some kids do some really good things," Cagle said.
The Jays had four wrestlers - Charlie Kusick at 132 pounds, Peter Kuster at 138, Dennis Barnes at 160 and Tyler Bise at 170 - finish undefeated at 3-0 on Friday.
Kusick won once by fall, while Kuster picked up a pair of pins. Barnes also won twice by fall, while Bise won once by fall and once by technical fall.
Going 2-1 for Jefferson City were Garrett Butel at 106, Will Kuster at 120 and Ian Cote at 182.
"I feel good about how we wrestled against some quality competition," Cagle said.
Jefferson City had five freshmen or sophomores in its lineup Friday.
"The younger guys are getting a taste of what it's like to wrestle on the varsity level," Cagle said.
The Jays will wrestle two more duals in their pool today. Jefferson City will meet Battle and Ozark before the trophy round wraps up the competition.
Jefferson City will be a little shorthanded in the morning session.
"We're going to have kids taking the ACT, but they have to do that because that's their future," Cagle said. "We're not going to stop kids from doing that."
Action will resume at 9 a.m. today at Helias.