The Abilene Cowboys have brought the Junction City Blue Jays 35-dual match winning streak to an end. They defeated the Blue Jays at the Shenk Gym Thursday night 45-17.

Abilene wrestling coach James Stout said the Cowboys are a good team, and have a group of seniors that had never defeated Junction City during their time in high school. “I’d heard that they hadn’t lost a match since ’11…or a dual like this. So that was one of our goals for the night obviously. We needed to keep the matches that we were outclassed in close, and we needed to pick up the bonus where we could. And in most of those cases we did just more often than they did.”  Stout added, “They’re a well coached team, very athletic. My hat’s off to them. I know that they’re ranked pretty high, so it’s kind of a nice plus for us to believe in ourselves a little bit.”

Abilene is 5-1 in duals on the season.

The Blue Jays currently hold a number four ranking in Class 6A.

Junction City coach Bob Laster said every time the Blue Jays wrestle Abilene they know it will be a tough dual. “We knew we had our hands full. And that’s what our team tried to do, is go out and try to keep the streak going, as well as try to get a win over Abilene, but it wasn’t in the picture for us tonight.”

Laster added he thought the Cowboys had more experience in some of the weight classes where Junction City  didn’t match up well. ” And that’s a key when you’re wrestling in a dual, is the matchups.  I just didn’t think that we had the matchups that we needed to  in some of the weight classes, and resulted in them getting big points.

Laster credited Aryus Jones and Jake Bazan for turning in the top performances for his team in the dual.

Junction City will compete in the 32-team Basehor – Linwood Invitational Friday and Saturday.