As the host, the Helias Crusaders knew what they had to do.
When a team dropped out of the Missouri Duals late in the week, the Crusaders knew they had to be the one to adjust their schedule.
“We wanted everybody to get the matches they came here to get,” Helias coach Weston Keleher said after the Crusaders blanked the Lebanon JV 79-0 in their only dual Friday night at Rackers Fieldhouse. “We were down a couple of teams anyway, from 14 to 12, so we thought for the teams that traveled here to get their most competitive matches was to wrestle Lebanon’s extra team.”
All of the teams were scheduled to wrestle twice Friday night. But with the team dropping out, Helias was the lone varsity team to go to the mat once.
Helias won five matches by fall against Lebanon JV -- Justin Wieberg at 132, Jordan Fincher at 138. Jace Duemmel at 144, Drake Perkins at 165 and Alex Cook at 285.
Aleksandr Careaga won by a major decision at 120 for the Crusaders, while Evan Dunn won by decision at 113.
“(Lebanon) was tough, they came out and wrestled hard,” Keleher said. “It wasn’t just roll over, they came out and battled. I know the score doesn’t reflect that, but they worked hard.”
Helias got its other seven victories by forfeit.
With the win, Helias won the Pool A and advanced to the championship pool round today.
“We don’t like it’s the way we got to there, but I think we would have gotten there if we would have wrestled who we were supposed to wrestle,” Keleher said.
Helias will open against Neosho before taking on the Lebanon varsity and closing against Lee’s Summit.
“We’re looking forward to the championship round, we’re ready to go,” Keleher said.
Action is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.