WARDSVILLE, Mo. - It was the home opener, Senior Night and home finale, all rolled into one night for the Blair Oaks wrestling team.
The Falcons hosted their only home competition of the season Tuesday with a quad against Palmyra, Knob Noster and Southern Boone.
"The guys were excited to wrestle in front of the home crowd," Blair Oaks coach Mike DeMilia said. "Friends and family members aren't always able to watch them on the road, so it was nice to have that and not have to travel."
Blair Oaks started the evening with a 36-33 win against Palmyra in Round 1, then fell 54-6 to Knob Noster - ranked No. 7 in Class 1 by missouriwrestling.com - in the second dual of the night.
The Falcons tied Southern Boone at 33 in the third dual. Each team won six matches and each team won five matches by fall/forfeit.
Next on the criteria list for the tiebreaker was number of first points scored in a match. Blair Oaks scored the first takedown in three of the five contested matches, giving the Falcons the dual win.
"Something we talk about as a team is to try to score first, to get the first takedown," DeMilia said. "You tend to win a lot of those matches. It was interesting that it came down to that criteria."
A pair of Blair Oaks wrestlers finished the night with a 3-0 record.
Ben Thomas won his three matches at 152 pounds. After winning by forfeit in his first match, Thomas won a 7-3 decision against Knob Noster's Brandon Rogalski in a state-ranked matchup.
Thomas finished the night with a second-period pin against Southern Boone's David Heyen.
"He went in a little funk there where he lost three or four matches, but he's got it figured out," DeMilia said. "He went to Brookfield and finished third there against really good kids. He's got his confidence back."
Dalton Bridges also went 3-0 at 126, recording a first-period pin to start the night. He then won a 6-3 decision against Knob Noster's Conner Johnston - ranked No. 4 in Class 1 - by taking the lead with a takedown with :12 remaining.
Bridges also scored a late takedown to seal a 6-4 win against Southern Boone's Blake Schmidt.
"He's tough to stop," DeMilia said of Bridges. "He had two situations where he was in a little trouble (against Johnston), and he finally just went and that kid had no chance to stop him. I'm really happy with the way he finished those matches."
Before Tuesday's final match against Southern Boone, Blair Oaks honored its two seniors, Addison Canale and Eddie Wells. Canale did not wrestle Tuesday, while Wells posted a 2-1 record at 160.
"Eddie's still new to wrestling," DeMilia said. "He will battle and battle and battle, like he did tonight."
The Falcons were open at five weights in the quad-dual, then had a sixth weight open up when Nick Barker suffered a right ankle injury at 170 against Knob Noster.
DeMilia said injuries and illnesses forced Blair Oaks to bump four JV wrestlers into the varsity lineup for Tuesday's duals. In addition to Barker, Sam Frisbie (132), Caden Killday (138) and Eli Batiste (145) cracked the varsity lineup to fill openings.
"We put a lot of guys in situations they weren't ready for," DeMilia said. "Some of them responded really well, some didn't. I think it was a good experience for our guys.
"We had our one home meet and some of our better guys weren't able to wrestle. That was frustrating, because we were really wanting to show them off."
Blair Oaks (10-8) wrestles Friday and Saturday in the Seneca Tournament, the team's final tournament of the regular season.
"We call that meet the mini-state tournament," DeMilia said. "It's a great venue to be at and it's great competition. It prepares us for districts and state. We want to go down there and compete and battle, it's going to be a good test for our guys."