The Jefferson City Jays cruised to the Gold Division title at the Missouri Duals, winning the six duals by an average of 43 points.
But in the Duals title match, there was nothing average about Blue Division champion Neosho.
"Neosho is one of the quality programs in the state," Jays coach Phil Cagle said Saturday afternoon after Jefferson City dropped a 49-22 decision to Neosho for the championship at Rackers Fieldhouse. "They are always tough, always ready to wrestle you at 100 percent.
"We wrestled Neosho as well as anybody did in this tournament."
The Jays won five matches against the Wildcats, who have won five of the last six Class 3 state championships.
"There were some matches that could have gone either way that we lost, but we'll learn from that," Cagle said. "I'm not displeased with our performance, even in the ones we lost, we went out and wrestled hard and were aggressive. Wrestling like that will pay off in the future."
Sam Rackers at 145 pounds and Will Berendzen at 160 both won by fall for Jefferson City against Neosho. Mike Frederichs at 170 posted a major decision, while Christian Strope at 120 and Brandon Backues at 285 both win by decision.
"When we'd beat them, they were mad, they don't like to lose," Cagle said. "And that's great because that makes for great competition for us. It's supposed to be fiery and intense."
Frederichs and Backues both finished 7-0 with four wins by fall in the two-day tournament. All four of Backues' pins came in the first period.
One of the best matches in the championship dual came at 152, where Will Kuster of Jefferson City faced Cayden Auch of Neosho, who won the state title at 126 last season.
The match was scoreless through two periods. Auch then got an escape early in the third, followed by a takedown to make it 3-0. Kuster then just missed a reversal in the final seconds to fall 3-0.
"Will's been sick all week, if he's healthy, nobody knows what might have happened," Cagle said.
JoeJoe Kuster at 132, Clayton Hurley at 138 and Rackers were all 6-1 in the tournament for the Jays. Kuster and Hurley both won five matches by fall. Rackers won four by fall and two by technical fall.
"It was a pretty good weekend," Cagle said. "But we saw some things we need to work on and we need to get in better shape, by the end, we were pretty tired."
It's Neosho's third straight Missouri Duals team title. Jefferson City won the title in 2015 with a victory against Neosho.
The Jays don't have practice today "so they can go Christmas shopping," Cagle said, before three days of intense practice to get ready for the Zebra Dual Tournament next Friday and Saturday in Claremore, Okla.
"It will be tough, every one of the duals down there will be like this one against Neosho," Cagle said.
It will be Jefferson City's first appearance in the tournament.