WARDSVILLE - The Blair Oaks wrestling team is beginning the season earlier than expected.
Coach Mike DeMilia received an email message about an opening in the Steve Leslie Invitational at Pleasant Hill, a two-day tournament that begins this evening, and he jumped at the chance to slide the Falcons in to fill that void.
"Normally, we take this weekend off, because a lot of time we don't have our full lineup, and if we go to tournaments this weekend, we'd only have five or six guys and it was a waste," DeMilia said.
But with a full lineup of 26 wrestlers, Blair Oaks plans to be competitive in the earlier-than-expected start to the season.
"We saw who was in it, and there were three district teams," DeMilia said. "Pleasant Hill is a great program, and we want to match up with them, to see how close or how far away we are."
Blair Oaks, which had a 21-9 dual record last season, is coming off a ninth-place finish at the Class 2 state wrestling championships in March. The Falcons return four state qualifiers, including a state medalist.
Senior Camden Meeks, who signed to wrestle at Duke University last month, took third place at 182 pounds with a 43-6 record last season. He will return at 182 this season for the Falcons.
"He had good freshman and sophomore years, but last year, he was a different guy, to win 43 matches with a 28-match win streak," DeMilia said. "He wants more and he worked hard in the offseason. He's improved a lot and we're looking for big things out of him."
The other returning state qualifiers for Blair Oaks are senior Aidan Bolinger and sophomores Easton DeMilia and Brady Kerperin.
Kerperin will bump up two weight classes to 170 after finishing 27-8 last year, while Bolinger, who was 27-20, will also move up two weight classes to 126.
"Brady made state at 152, in arguably the toughest weight class in our district and sectional," DeMilia said. "He was an unseeded guy who won districts. What he accomplished there was pretty amazing.
"Aidan just started wrestling as a freshman. For him to make the improvements as much as he has in three years, he's obviously going to look to have a lot of success at 126."
Easton DeMilia will move up to 113, with sophomore Bradyn Huhn battling him for that spot, after going 35-14 as a freshman.
"He's still inexperienced in wrestling, but he's a competitive kid," Mike DeMilia said of his son, who joined Meeks on the Tri-County Conference all-conference first team last season. "What he lacks in technique he makes up for in work ethic."
The Falcons also return four wrestlers - seniors Austin Baumhoer and Joe Welch and sophomores Caiden Sanford and Brooks Nichols - who competed in the postseason lineup last season.
"Our kids compete hard and they learn from losing and learn from making mistakes," DeMilia said. "That's why our program is as good as it is right now."
Welch is back at 220, Sanford is battling junior Quinten Denney and freshman Nolan Laughlin for spots at 138 and 145, and Baumhoer is competing with sophomore Doug Blaha and junior Dylan Peate at 160.
A big addition to the Falcons' lineup is junior Zach Rackers at 152. Rackers tore his ACL just days before the start of his freshman season and missed the last two years as a result.
"He's in great shape, he looks good," DeMilia said. "He's as tough as anybody in our wrestling room. He's a great kid, works his butt off and deserves to have a great two years here."
Rounding out Blair Oaks' lineup will be freshman Carter Kempker at 106, sophomore Whit Nichols at 120, senior Dex Crane at 195 and junior Hayden Steadman at 285. Senior Zac McCarty and freshman Jackson Finke are competing for the spot at 132.
"We should be a really good dual team, just from the fact that we aren't giving up points," DeMilia said. "For the most part, we're going to have 14 guys, so that should be a huge advantage."
Blair Oaks will compete in the Missouri Duals next weekend at Helias and the Moberly Duals the following weekend. The Falcons have made plenty of changes to their duals schedule, wrestling bigger schools as they begin their third season in Class 2.
"We're getting to that level where we don't need to have 'gimmes' anymore," DeMilia said. "We need to challenge our kids."
Blair Oaks was assigned to District 3, which features Monett, Seneca and Helias, all top-four finishers in Class 2 last season.
"It's frustrating to know that southwest district that we're going to was already the toughest district," DeMilia said. "And then you took two top 10 teams (Helias and Blair Oaks) and put them in that district. You have two districts that are really thin and then two killer districts.
"At the end of the day, it is what it is. You have to wrestle through it, we have to compete, but we're not going to shy away from it. There's going to be a lot of good wrestlers that don't make it out of our district."
Blair Oaks' first of four home dual matchups is Dec. 14 against Fatima, Knob Noster and Palmyra.