Jays begin wrestling season by finishing fourth in Missouri Duals

It was a strong opening weekend of wrestling for the Jefferson City Jays.

Jefferson City took second place in its six-team pool at the Missouri Duals, then the Jays dropped both matchups in bracket play to finish fourth out of 12 teams Saturday at Rackers Fieldhouse.

“The kids stayed with it,” Jefferson City coach Darrell Luebbert said. “Their true grit and determination, fighting every single match, that’s what we’re about.”

Jefferson City went 2-1 in Friday’s duals, then won 60-12 against Blair Oaks and 54-24 against Capital City’s JV team Saturday morning to finish 4-1 and advance to the championship bracket with Eureka, Father Tolton and Neosho.

“We came out in the first two duals like we expected,” Luebbert said. “We battled tough, won both of those to get in the championship round.

“That was basically our goal, we want to wrestle for first or third.”

The Jays lost 60-7 to Neosho in the semifinals, then dropped a 44-13 decision to Eureka in the third-place match.

“You want to end on an odd number,” Luebbert said. “It didn’t quite go that way for us today.”

Jefferson City ended the weekend with a 4-3 record, with all three losses coming to the top three finishers. Neosho defeated Tolton 48-26 in the first-place match for its third straight Missouri Duals title.

“There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s a stepping stone to build on where we’re going,” Luebbert said.

Braden Werdehausen was the lone Jay to finish the weekend undefeated.

Werdehausen went 7-0 at 138 pounds. He started Saturday’s action with wins by fall against Blair Oaks and Capital City’s JV team, then won a 12-2 major decision against Neosho and a 2-0 decision against Eureka.

“I can’t talk enough about the positive atmosphere that Braden is putting in the wrestling room,” Luebbert said. “He’s one of our captains and he’s moving along.”

Deegan Mitchell finished 6-1 at 144, winning all four matches on Day 2. He had one pin, one win by major decision and two wins by decision Saturday.

“He got caught yesterday, but he didn’t let it get him down,” Luebbert said.

Other top finishers for the Jays were Cameron McKee, who finished 5-1 at 150, and Eli Teiberis, who was 4-1 at 132. Nicholas Redcay also won four matches at 165.

“Nick Redcay, a freshman stepping up in a big weight class, going 4-3, and in every match he never gave up,” Luebbert said. “He’s doing great.”

Makoa Castillo (120), Eric Mejia (157) and Zeke Duren (175) each had three wins in the Missouri Duals. Castillo finished the two-day event with a third-period pin against Eureka, one of the Jays’ three head-to-head wins against the Wildcats.

“Every bonus point counts, that’s what we’ve been talking about all week,” Luebbert said.

Jefferson City started the Missouri Duals filling 12 of the 14 weight classes, but a few injuries through the seven duals left the Jays only able to fill 10 weight classes by Saturday afternoon.

It will still take Jefferson City some time to get to full strength. The Jays have only had the football players in the wrestling room for the past few weeks due to the team’s state playoff run into the semifinals.

“We’ll adapt and overcome,” Luebbert said. “That’s why we started the season later. We’ll get the guys in shape, we’ll bump some guys down where they can get to the weights where they want to be. I think we’re going to be a force to reckon with.”

Jefferson City goes to the Lee’s Summit Holiday Invitational on Friday and Saturday. Now with the preseason behind them, the Jays will use this week of practice to brush up on areas of improvement they discovered this weekend.

“We’re going to go back and hit a couple days on technique,” Luebbert said. “Then we’ll get back into live wrestling, work on the small basics.”