Opening night at Washburn Rural came down to every match of the night for the Manhattan High wrestling team. As soon as the 220-pound matchup concluded with junior Eric Boudreaux falling and the score being tied up 32 all, sophomore Eldon Picou (285) took to the mat.

“As soon as I saw him [Boudreaux] go down, I knew I had to win,” Picou said.

After a start where he was knocked off balance, Picou rolled him through to take the match with a pin at 1:13, making the final score 38-32 for Manhattan.

The night was kicked off with Coach Robert Gonzales telling the wrestlers minutes before the match to “Respect all. Fear none.” In practice, the team ability to overcome showed in a number of key matches in the night.

Freshman Jalen Harper (120) cinched the first win of the night for Manhattan with a pin in the third round, putting the first team points on the board. Three pins and a technical fall for Manhattan followed Harper’s match and came to a head when junior Blake Wewer (160) had to step up in overtime of his first match wrestling in the 160 weight class.

“I was thinking I needed to get a takedown and win,” Wewer said. “I just knew that we needed the wins. Especially since we have younger people in the lineup who don’t have too much experience.”

The end of the dual yielded a starting point for the young team with film the team needed to polish for last Saturday’s Gardner Edgerton meet.

“We put our kids in really tough spots because it was their first year in Varsity,” Gonzales said. “I think we’ll get better. I think we’ll improve. We’re certainly going to continue with that motto, ‘Respect all. Fear none.’”

At the site of the Gardner-Edgerton Invitational, Manhattan was pitted against nationally ranked teams such as Broken Arrow from Oklahoma and Southeast Polk out of Iowa.

“It’s a good gauge for them to realize that there’s these teams that are extremely well-off and can compete with anybody in the country,” coach Mike Miller said. “That allows us to let our kids know that they can compete with those guys just as easy as they can compete with anybody in the state.”

The team’s finish included Harper taking second place with sophomores Mason Wallace (132), Akira Alesna(220), and Picou all taking third in their respective weight classes.

With an eighth place and 103 team points scored, the exposure to the variety of competition provided experience for this young team to go off of for the upcoming meets.

“I can only see good stuff because this also allows our newer wrestlers to the Varsity level to understand the competition they will be facing all year,” Miller said. “If they can come away with a win or two from this tournament, they should be able to compete at the state tournament.”

Friday’s upcoming dual against two time defending State champions, Garden City, will be a rare instance where the wrestlers get to compete on a Friday night against a difficult opponent. Saturday will mark the Manhattan Dual tournament to complete their weekend before the Grand Island tournament on December 19 and 20.