The top-ranked Fulton Hornets wrestling team and head coach Eric Hudson traded some playful banter when it came to the significance of winning its own Jim Wallace Classic.
With bigger aspirations looming as the district and state championships are now less than a month away, unbeaten Fulton locked up the title of its home tournament - named after the longtime Hornets head coach - for the third straight year Saturday at Roger D. Davis Gymnasium.
"The kids and I have been joking, mostly them, about how this (tournament) is all that matters, this is what we train all year for, so they've been hamming it up a little bit," Hudson said. "I know they're proud, they're happy that they won."
Fulton, producing four individual champions and four second-place finishers, secured the team championship with 172.5 points. The Hornets are ranked No. 1 in Class 2 by rankwrestlers.com.
North Central Missouri Conference foe Moberly finished second in the 10-team field with 154 points, while School of the Osage came in third with 122.5.
"It's a nice honor for the kids; they come out and compete hard, and want to wrestle well," Hudson said. "... Particularly this year was nice. In the previous two years we were pretty healthy and finished in really great shape, and this year we had a couple of kids step out (because of injuries), and of course, (285-pound junior) Clayton (Bristol) didn't wrestle.
"To be able to win it this year with all of that going on, that says a lot. We had some of our guys who haven't wrestled a lot, wrestling, and really competing hard on the back side and picking up some team points, and helping us out."
Claiming individual titles for the Hornets were a trio of juniors - Josh McClure, Trenton Clines and Zach Benner - at 138, 145 and 195 pounds, respectively, as well as senior Taylor Gillooly at 182.
McClure - a state champion last year at 113 pounds - and Benner, the state runner-up at 182, both remained unbeaten with their championship victories Saturday. McClure (26-0) took first place at 138 pounds with a 19-4 technical fall over Priory's Patrick Lane (23-7) for first place, while Benner - also 26-0 - wrapped up round-robin competition by pinning Missouri Military Academy's Damdinbazar Sumiyabazar (12-9) in a quick 53 seconds.
"They both wrestled well, wrestled to their strengths," Hudson said. "I've been happy with their performances so far. There's a little bit of pressure involved with being undefeated; I really don't want them to feel that pressure.
"They're trying to focus on the process and getting to the end (of the season), where we want to be."
Clines, meanwhile, raised his season record to 25-2 with his title triumph at 145 pounds. He held off Moberly's Kyler Guthrie (27-10) in a 7-5 decision in the first-place match.
"Trent's match was a little tighter than we thought it would be," Hudson said. "We'll have that same matchup (tonight) in Moberly, so we'll see how that goes.
"Trent's performed like we've expected him to perform."
Gillooly - who only recently returned to competition after rehabbing from knee surgery - is now 8-0 on the season by prevailing at 182 pounds. He pinned Moberly's Spencer Nuhn (13-13) in 1:03 in his last round-robin match.
"I'm really happy for Taylor; he looked good and has done really well so far," Hudson said. "It's great for him; he's worked hard at it and enjoyed it."
Logging second-place finishes for Fulton were junior Andy Baysinger at 160 pounds, sophomore Luke Berrey at 152, freshman Tucker Caswell at 106 and senior Noah Braun at 170.
Baysinger (18-4) dropped a 6-3 decision to Maplewood-Richmond Height's Zack Siebert in the round-robin format at 160 pounds, then was forced to forfeit his final match against Moberly's John Heimann (33-6) after suffering an ankle injury. Berrey (23-5) was edged by Osage's Brad Russell (27-6) in a 3-2 decision in the championship at 152 pounds.
Caswell (27-2) came up just short in his final round-robin match at 106 pounds, suffering a narrow 1-0 loss to Winfield's Tucker Moon (34-1). Braun (16-7) was pinned by Winfield's Tayler Nicholson (29-2) in 1:29 in the title match at 170 pounds.
Sophomore Brandon Dews (25-3) and freshman Jacob Kern (6-7) also collected third-place finishes at 120 and 126 pounds, respectively, for the Hornets. Sophomore Devan Hudson (21-4) - who had to default one match and forfeit another due to a hamstring injury - took fourth at 113 pounds.
Juniors Jonathan Morris (1-3) and Elisha Eniade (2-2) both placed fifth at 220 and 285 pounds, respectively. Senior Connor Dawson (1-6) - who became sick during the tournament - finished sixth at 132 pounds.
Fulton can move closer to clinching the NCMC title with a victory at Moberly at 6 tonight. The Hornets are 20-0 on the season and 4-0 in the conference.
"I expect it to be a pretty tight dual, especially because some of our better kids may not be able to wrestle," Eric Hudson said. "That could really hurt us. We'll just have to see how it shakes out.
"Hopefully our kids are healthy and can go ahead and wrestle again, but if not, we'll have to rest them and just take our chances, and see what happens."