Blair Oaks boys sweep duals from Jefferson City, Capital City

Jackson Finke of Blair Oaks looks to escape from Parker Jones of Capital City during Tuesday's dual at Blair Oaks High School in Wardsville. (Shaun Zimmerman/News Tribune)
Jackson Finke of Blair Oaks looks to escape from Parker Jones of Capital City during Tuesday's dual at Blair Oaks High School in Wardsville. (Shaun Zimmerman/News Tribune)

WARDSVILLE -- The Blair Oaks boys wrestling team is getting closer to full strength, and it showed Tuesday night.

Blair Oaks won a pair of duals at Blair Oaks High School, defeating Capital City 57-20 and Jefferson City 41-24.

“We knew it was going to be a hard night, but I felt we were good enough to beat them if we wrestled to our capabilities,” Blair Oaks coach Mike DeMilia said.

“We’re almost to our full lineup. … This is pretty close to what you’re going to see.”

Against the Cavaliers, the Falcons won nine of the 11 contested matchups.

“I always map things out,” DeMilia said. “I predicted it coming down to a couple toss-up matches. We won three of the toss-up matches we had and then we won one I thought we were going to lose.”


 Gallery: Blair Oaks, Jefferson City, Capital City Wrestling Tri-Dual


Blair Oaks went 8-4 in head-to-head matchups against Jefferson City.

“In both of those duals, if you can win the ones you’re supposed to and then win those close ones, you usually win the dual,” DeMilia said.

Finishing with a 2-0 record for the Falcons were Nolan DeMilia at 106 pounds, Carter Kempker at 113, Easton DeMilia at 120, Whit Nichols at 126, Nolan Laughlin at 144/150, Zach Rackers at 165, Doug Blaha at 175, Brady Kerperin at 215 and Hayden Steadman at 285.

It was the Falcons’ first competition since Dec. 17.

“They had five days off for Christmas, and then we came back with four really hard practices last week and had another hard one this week,” DeMilia said.

Rackers, Blaha and Kerperin won both of their matches by fall. Nolan DeMilia, Kempker, Nichols and Steadman each had one pin.

Nichols also handed Jefferson City’s Eli Teiberis his first loss of the season with an 8-0 victory by major decision.

“Tonight, he rose to the challenge against a really good kid,” DeMilia said. “He dominated the match. He’s really turning the corner.”

Steadman added a 1-0 win against Jefferson City’s Luke Jenkins, getting an escape point in the second period before holding on for the full two minutes of riding time in the third period.

“He was able to get out quick in the second period, which saved a lot of energy,” DeMilia said. “That was a really good win. Heavyweights have to win that way sometimes.”

Jackson Finke went 1-1 at 138/144 with a pin.

Although Bradyn Huhn and Dylan Peate each finished 0-2, DeMilia was pleased with their performances, going the distance in three of their four matchups.

“They battled all the way through for six minutes,” DeMilia said.

Blair Oaks (12-6) will compete Friday in the Tri-County Conference Tournament at Eldon.

“It’s going to be a tough deal, but it’s going to be fun,” DeMilia said.

In the remaining dual of Tuesday’s tri-dual, Jefferson City defeated Capital City 45-24 in Central Missouri Activities Conference competition.

“We had to knock off a little bit of rust,” Jefferson City coach Nathan Redcay said. “In the (Capital City) dual, we wrestled with a lot more intensity than the (Blair Oaks) dual.”

The Jays won six of the first seven matchups against the Cavaliers to build a 33-3 lead.

“We talked a lot all week about bonus points,” Redcay said. “The kids took control early in those matches.”

Going 2-0 for Jefferson City were Braden Werdehausen at 138/144, Cameron McKee at 144/150 and Cohen Davis at 190. Werdehausen and McKee each had two pins.

“They knew we needed bonus points from them and they were able to do that,” Redcay said.

Seth Stumbaugh (113), Dom Stafford (120), Teiberis (126), Eric Mejia (132), Anthony Seneker (157) and Rodney Wilson (175) each had 1-1 records for the Jays.

Jefferson City (4-3, 1-0 CMAC) wrestles another conference dual Thursday at Sedalia Smith-Cotton.

“It’s just going to be wrestle, recovery, wrestle, recovery,” Redcay said. “We’ll clean up a few things here and there.”

AJ Kempker led the Capital City Cavaliers with a 2-0 record at 132.

Kempker won a 14-9 decision against Blair Oaks, then rallied for an 8-7 overtime victory against Jefferson City’s Mejia, scoring an escape point with one second left in the third period to force overtime.

“He knows Eric, he wrestled with us last year,” Capital City coach Mitch Werdehausen said of Kempker. “AJ wrestled well, they both wrestled tough matches.”

Roberto Macias also won in overtime at 165 against the Jay, scoring a match-sealing takedown with :40 left in overtime.

“Roberto’s a sophomore, he’s filling big shoes as a young kid,” Werdehausen said. “He wrestled tough and has won three matches on varsity so far. He’s getting confidence.”

Joining Macias with a 1-1 record for the Cavaliers were Ethan Wydra at 106, Eli Jenkins at 157, Matthew Wiegand at 190, Aden Jackson at 215 and Reyce Turner at 285.

Capital City (14-5, 2-2 CMAC) hosts a duals tournament Saturday.

“January is rough, we’ve got a lot of wrestling to do,” Werdehausen said.

III

In girls wrestling Tuesday, Blair Oaks finished 2-0 with wins against Capital City (60-3) and Jefferson City (45-19).

Sam Lage went 2-0 at 145 for the Lady Falcons, winning by fall in 5:55 and posting a 10-8 win.

“She’s usually going to go the whole way,” Blair Oaks coach Tim Karsten said. “She’s going to be a good one.”

Blair Oaks won three of its seven head-to-head matchups against Jefferson City, as Maddalen Prenger (105) and Rylee Robinett (190) both won by fall.

Jefferson City won 39-0 against Capital City. In addition to five wins by forfeit, Izzy Eitel won by fall at 110 for the Lady Jays and Ava Purvis won a 3-2 decision at 145.

In the dual against Blair Oaks, Eitel won by fall, Lexi Dunwiddie (130) won 9-1, Kaylee Redcay (140) won 2-1 and Kyla Finney (235) won by fall.