For the Blair Oaks Falcons, gaining experience is a higher priority than winning at the Missouri Duals.
There weren't any hanging heads after the Falcons began the first night of the two-day event Friday with losses of 53-24 to Helias, 63-6 to Lebanon and 74-4 to Neosho at Rackers Fieldhouse.
"We didn't expect to come here and go beat those teams, to be honest," Blair Oaks coach Mike DeMilia said. "We expected to come here and compete, and I think we did.
"It wasn't pretty. We got beat up at times, but we lost a lot of close matches in all three duals. If we win a couple of those, we don't necessarily win the duals, but it makes it a little closer."
According the MissouriWrestling.com, Neosho is ranked No. 1 in Class 3 and Lebanon is No. 3.
"Lebanon and Neosho, they might very well be the best two teams here," DeMilia said. "Neosho was a state champ last year, Lebanon was sixth."
The Falcons are the smallest of the seven teams in the Blue Division.
"When you wrestle the teams we're wrestling, they expose your weaknesses, they expose what you're not doing well," DeMilia said. "That's what we're going to get out of this."
Blair Oaks finished the night with five head-to-head wins, three of which came in its opening dual against Helias.
Levi Haney won by fall in 1:45 at 170 pounds against the Crusaders, then Kyler Griep pinned his opponent in :33 at 182. Shane Gillmore bumped up a weight class and won by fall in 1:00 at 285.
"The lower weights, we knew those were going to be tough," DeMilia said.
Caleb Meeks won by fall in 3:35 at 138 in the dual against Lebanon, while Haney won by major decision, 15-5, against Neosho. Haney was the only Falcon with two wins on the night.
"He wrestled really well against Lebanon too, the kid was just way bigger than him," DeMilia said of Haney. " I really liked what I saw, from him being undersized and battling some good competition."
Eli Batiste had two of the toughest losses for the Falcons. Wrestling at 152 against Helias, Batiste took a 1-0 lead in the second period with an escape and came close to riding out the two minutes of the third period. But Nikolai Careaga benefited from a clasping penalty in the final 30 seconds and then recorded an escape in the final 10 seconds to get the 2-1 win.
"He was real close," DeMilia said. "I thought we had him, and it just slipped away."
In his matchup against Lebanon, Batiste lost a 7-4 decision, but the match was halted five times due to blood stoppages from his opponent.
"You run into those from time to time, and you just have to wrestle through it," DeMilia said. "We were wearing on their guy a little bit, getting an advantage, and he kept getting all the stoppages. That's the way it goes."
Griep and Haney alternated between 170 and 182 in all three duals. Griep suffered a right shoulder injury in his loss against Neosho.
"I don't know what tomorrow will bring," DeMilia said. "Maybe he won't wrestle, but we'll have to see."
Wrestling resumes at 9 a.m. today. Blair Oaks opens against Grain Valley and then Oak Grove. After a break in Round 6, the Falcons will face Bolivar.
The tough competition continues, as Bolivar is No. 2 in Class 2 and Oak Grove is ranked No. 5.
A win in one of those three matches would help Blair Oaks' chances of competing in a fourth dual, as the bottom team from each division is left out of the place matches to finish the Missouri Duals.
"We want to win duals, but at the end of the day, that's not the No. 1 goal," DeMilia said. "We want to get better."