COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Blair Oaks Falcons had two wrestlers remaining Saturday on the final day of the Class 1 state tournament at Mizzou Arena.
Both wrestlers finished the season with a win, and the Falcons ended the tournament with 36 points in the team standings, good enough for 16th place out of 52 qualifying teams.
"We'd like to bring more (wrestlers), but these three guys really battled their butts off," Blair Oaks coach Mike DeMilia said.
Sophomore Kyler Griep picked up wins in both matches to finish the tournament at 152 pounds.
"He wrestled lights out," DeMilia said.
Griep picked up a 6-2 win in the fourth-round quarterfinals. He then finished the season with a pin in 4:19 against Brookfield's Khalil Walker to secure a third-place finish.
"I lost to Khalil two times earlier in the season," Griep said. "I knew it was going to be a hard match going into it, but I knew at about that second period, when he started breaking, that I kind of had the match."
Griep ends the season with a 35-11 record, going 4-1 at the state tournament. He surpassed his expectations during the weekend, especially after taking third place in districts.
"It's really a great accomplishment," Griep said. "At the beginning of the year, my goal was just to make it to state. Then I got here, and I just started working harder and harder in practice, and it paid off."
Griep had Blair Oaks' best individual finish since 2016, when Frankie Falotico took second place at 145.
"I can't wait for next year," Griep said.
Junior Dalton Bridges climbed a step higher on the state podium this season.
After taking sixth place last season, Bridges went 1-1 on Saturday to finish fifth at 126 for his second state medal.
Bridges dropped an 8-5 decision in his first match of the day, but he bounced back for a 7-4 win against Adrian's Carter Lalumia in the fifth-place bout. Bridges never trailed in the match, scoring two takedowns and a reversal in the first two periods.
"He didn't wrestle very well (Friday) night," DeMilia said of Bridges. " He came out in that last match against a kid he had beaten before, and he did what he had to do to win. He came out and was more aggressive today."
Bridges finishes the season with a 30-7 record, going 3-2 at state.
Blair Oaks junior Ben Thomas came up one win short of medaling Friday night, tying for seventh-place at 145 and ending his season with a 42-12 record.
"I feel bad about Ben not placing, but he lost to two really good guys," DeMilia said.
All three state qualifiers will return next season for Blair Oaks. The Falcons lose just two seniors off this year's squad and DeMilia is hoping for more state qualifiers for next season.
"I'm hoping it not only carries over with those guys, but also that the other guys start to get better and they start to realize what they can accomplish," DeMilia said. "Kyler didn't qualify last year, and then he came all the way back to be third.
"We have two or three guys in the room right now that should look at that and go, 'That could be me.' That could be big for our program."
Whitfield won the Class 1 team championship - its fifth in the past seven years - with 240 points. The Warriors had five state champions and four runners-up.
Seneca was second with 124 points, followed by Marceline with 105.5 points and Lathrop in fourth with 97.5.