With all of the youth and inexperience on the team, the Jefferson City Jays know the early part of the wrestling season will be a learning experience.
Some lessons are more difficult than others.
“Most of the boys gave it their all, we made some rookie mistakes, but that’s to be expected,” Jays assistant coach Candace Cameron said Friday night after Jefferson City dropped two duals by a combined three points in the Missouri Duals at Rackers Fieldhouse.
“But we’re building with a lot of freshman and sophomores and they just need some experience.”
Jefferson City opened with a 41-39 loss to Lee’s Summit, then fell 37-36 to St. Michael the Archangel.
“We’re not getting down, we just need to build a little grit in some of them,” Cameron said.
Five Jays -- Dominic Stafford at 120 pounds, Eli Teiberis at 126, Braden Werdehausen at 138, Joe Kuster at 150 and Rodney Wilson at 175 -- finished 2-0 in their matches.
Werdehausen won both of his matches by first-period falls.
“Braden did what he does and he does it well,” Cameron said.
Stafford also won twice by fall, while Teiberis won once by fall and once by forfeit. Kuster won once by fall and once by decision, while Wilson captured a pair of one-point decisions.
Cameron McKee at 144, Luke Mosley at 165, Brodie Purtle at 190 and Luke Jenkins at 285 all were 1-1 at their respective weights. Seth Stumbaugh at 113, Eric Mejia at 132 and Gideon Duren at 215 were all 0-2.
The Jays were open at 106 and 157.
Jefferson City will close the tournament with three scheduled duals today.
“We hope for better results and we take what we learned tonight and grow from it,” Cameron said.
Action will begin at 10 a.m. today.