The Helias Crusaders couldn’t carry over the momentum.
Neosho has been the king of the Missouri Duals in recent years and Helias thought it had a chance to knock off the Wildcats in pool action Friday night at Rackers Fieldhouse.
The Crusaders nearly pulled it off before falling 38-36 to the Wildcats. That loss may have carried over into the Crusaders’ final dual of the night, where Helias lost 41-34 to North Point to finish with a 1-2 record on the opening night of the Duals.
“Just as many steps forward as we took against Neosho, we took just as many back against North Point,” Helias coach Weston Keleher said. “There was a lot of fight and grit in the dual against Neosho, but we didn’t see anything similar to that against North Point.”
Helias opened the night with a 47-22 victory against the Lebanon Yellowjackets. The Crusaders won five matches by fall and one by technical fall in the dual.
The dual against Neosho was back and forth throughout the 14 matches. Helias, which forfeited at two weights in all three duals, won six times by fall. Three of the pins came in the third period.
“Neosho does a lot of good stuff, we were able to answer them in that dual,” Keleher said. “We were strong in our technique, we wrestled hard throughout the matches against them.”
Helias then closed the night with a 41-33 loss to North Point, a school located in Wentzville.
“Everything just reset after Neosho, it was tough to figure out,” Keleher said.
Alex Wieberg was 3-0 with three pins at 120 pounds for the Crusaders. Eli Homan at 175 also was 3-0 with three wins by fall for the Crusaders, while Logan Montoya was 3-0 at 190 with two pins and a victory by technical fall.
“All three teams that we wrestled were tough,” Keleher said. “I don’t mean they all had state champion after state champion in their lineup, but they all wrestled hard and tough and we lost some duals because we weren’t as tough as we needed to be.”
The Crusaders are young in a lot of spots in their lineup. Varsity experience isn’t something you pick up in just a handful to duals so far this season.
“I saw improvement,” Keleher said. “We are improving by small amounts and right now, that’s what’s important because it is still just December. It’s going to take time, we’re seeing steps forward and hopefully that continues throughout the season.”
Helias will wrap up pool action with duals this morning against Eureka and Capital City. Action is scheduled to start at 9 a.m.
The Crusaders will then wrestle a pair of bracket duals in the afternoon to close the event.