It’s always good to have a goal.
The Capital City Cavaliers achieved theirs Saturday at their own duals tournament at Capital City High School.
“Our goal was to finish in the top four, so they met that goal,” Capital City coach Mitch Werdehausen said after the Cavaliers went 3-2 in duals to take fourth.
The Cavaliers dominated in winning their first three duals by a combined score of 184-42, defeating Rock Bridge (66-9), Clayton (75-6) and Moberly (43-27).
Capital City wrapped up pool play with a 60-14 loss to Liberty North, then fell 58-12 to Raymore-Peculiar in the third-place dual.
“We wrestled well the first four duals, the last one we didn’t,” Werdehausen said. “We need to get our tournament game plan figured out so we can finish a little better.
“We have a lot of young kids, they get amped up early and I think they kind of wear out at the end.”
Levi Casey finished 4-1 at 150 pounds for the Cavaliers. He won twice by fall, once by decision and once by forfeit.
“He won some good, tough matches, he wrestled well,” Werdehausen said.
Eli Jenkins wrestled better than his 2-3 record at 157 might indicate.
“He put up a good fight in all of his matches,” Werdehausen said.
Jeremiah Austin was 4-1 at 144 for the Cavaliers, winning twice by fall and twice by forfeit. DeMarkus Lyddon-Allen was 3-1 at 132.
“The kids wrestled hard, we got a lot of good experience,” Werdehausen said.
Hannibal won the team title with a 40-36 victory against Liberty North.
“There was some high competition all day,” Werdehausen said. “Hannibal and Liberty North have very good teams, but everybody had some good kids throughout their lineups.”
It was a day for the Cavaliers to improve, with the start of the postseason a little more than a month away.
“It’s an end game, not a short game,” Werdehausen said.
Capital City is back in action Tuesday at home in a Central Missouri Activities Conference dual against Sedalia Smith-Cotton.
III
The Jefferson City Jays wanted some mat time.
“We got that,” Jefferson City coach Nathan Redcay said after the Jays finished fifth with a 3-2 record Saturday in the tournament. “We saw some things we need to fix and we’re going to get on that (today).”
Jefferson City opened with a 37-27 loss to eventual champion Hannibal, then defeated Fatima (48-30) and St. James (57-12). After losing to Raymore-Peculiar (31-30) to wrap up pool play, Jefferson City topped Moberly 47-28 in the fifth-place match.
The Jays were hampered in the team race by being open at 106 and 215 and moving a JV wrestler into the lineup at 285.
“The kids fought hard and that’s all I can really ask for,” Redcay said. “We’re getting better and continuing to improve.”
The heart of the lineup was strong for the Jays as Braden Werdehausen, Cameron McKee and Joe Kuster combined to go 14-1 in the tournament.
Werdehausen won four times by fall, three in the first period, and lost a decision. McKee, who wrestled four times at 144 and once at 150, won four times by fall and once by forfeit. Kuster won once by fall, once by decision and three times by forfeit.
“Those three bumped up quite a bit today and they’re the strength of our team right now because they have the most experience,” Redcay said.
The lighter weights showed improvement throughout the day for the Jays. After starting with a combined record of 1-9 through the first three duals between 113-132, the foursome closed by going 6-2 in the final two matchups.
“They finished strong,” Redcay said.
Rodney Wilson and Cohen Davis both finished 4-1 for Jefferson City in the upper weights. Wilson won once by fall, twice by decision and once by forfeit. Davis earned four wins by fall.
Jefferson City is back in action Wednesday in a tri-dual against Battle and Eldon in Columbia.
“We have three opportunities to get better between now and then and we want to take full advantage of that,” Redcay said.
In a schedule change, the Steve Johnson Duals scheduled for next Saturday at Fleming Fieldhouse have been canceled.
“We had teams back out, we were down to three, so we had to pull the plug,” Redcay said.
Jefferson City is looking for a tournament to replace it that day.
III
The Fatima Comets won their final two duals Saturday to finish seventh in the Invitational.
Fatima opened with losses to Jefferson City (48-30), Raymore-Peculiar (50-24) and Hannibal (51-6). The Comets then edged St. James (34-33) before defeating Clayton (52-30) in the seventh-place match.
Trevor Herzing was 5-0 with five first-period falls in splitting time between 215 and 285 for the Comets.
Alek Tune was 4-1 at 113, with three wins by fall and one by a major decision. Cody Strope was 4-1 in his matches at 126 and 132, with three wins by fall.
Tucker Tune was 3-1 at 106, while Nolan Laux was 3-2 splitting time between 120 and 126. Two of his wins were by fall.
Fatima is scheduled to host a tri-dual Tuesday against Centralia and North Callaway.