Size advantage? Yes. Quickness advantage? Yes. Muscle advantage? Yes.
Dominant win? With all of those advantages, yes.
The Jefferson City Jays won 10 of the 11 contested matches Wednesday night and defeated the Helias Crusaders 68-6 in a wresting dual at Fleming Fieldhouse.
"Bigger, faster, stronger," Helias coach Bryant Gaines said. "That's what they were and we're not there yet. We hit some moves, but they were bigger, faster, stronger."
Jays coach Phil Cagle agreed with that assessment.
"Right now, he's probably right," Cagle said.
Due to a combination of a break in the schedule and cancellations due to weather, the Jays had not wrestled since the calendar turned to 2017. Cagle wasn't sure what he was going to see from his team.
"The only thing I knew was they were tired of me yelling at them in practice," Cagle said. "I wondered how sharp we would be, but they handled the practices really well."
The Jays got off to a good start Wednesday night when Garrett Butel opened the dual with a win by fall at 106 pounds. The win continued a fine streak for the sophomore in his recent matches.
"He has just started wrestling and been a big surprise," Cagle said.
Helias got its lone win at 113 where Evan Winder won by fall in the first period.
"Evan did great," Gaines said.
Will Kuster of the Jays then won 8-0 at 120 before Charlie Kusick posted an 8-4 victory at 126. Sam Rackers won by fall in 2:23 at 132 for the Jays.
Kuster and Rackers are freshman.
"We had our youngsters wrestle really well tonight," Cagle said.
Peter Kuster of the Jays won 9-1 at 138 before Christian Mayberry won 9-3 at 145.
The Jays then won by fall or forfeit the remainder of the dual.
Winning by fall were Reece Neighbors at 152 (1:32), Dennis Barnes at 160 (3:31), Ian Cote at 182 (:43) and Devante Finney at 285 (3:03). Tyler Bise at 170, Thomas McCarthy at 195 and Brandon Backues at 220 all won by forfeit.
"I don't think the score is indicative of how Helias wrestled," Cagle said. "I wish them the best the rest of the year, this is the only night of the year I don't want them to be successful."
While disappointed with the final score, Gaines saw some positives Wednesday night from the Crusaders.
"It was not the result we wanted, but the kids wrestled well until a certain point," Gaines said. "We've got some good kids, but we did some good stuff.
"We're just not there yet, but we're working to get there."
Jefferson City will wrestle Friday and Saturday at the Hickman Tournament. Helias is back in action today in a quad with Eldon, Marshall and Versailles at Eldon.
In Wednesday's JV dual, Jefferson City defeated Helias 57-0.