The last dual at the Super Duals Saturday in Spring Valley featured two teams who went 3-0 on the day and were looking to stay undefeated to win the annual wrestling meet.

St. Bede and Putnam County/Hall were ready for the showdown as it ended in a 30-30 tie.

However, because of the criteria — which team scored first in the most matches — the Panthers were awarded the win during their Senior Night, as they scored first in three matches and the Bruins scored first in two matches.

“It’s a real good confidence booster,” said PC senior Evan Sartain, who went 4-0 on Saturday with three pins. “Coach (Jerry Kriewald) told us before the duals, ‘I’m not really going to focus on team wins, but with how we wrestle.’ We thought St. Bede was going to win with forfeits because they’re a much larger program.

“We wanted to focus on outwrestling them. To not only outwrestle them, but to get the team win, was quite the confidence booster. It’s nice to roll into regionals with that confidence.”

Defeating the Bruins was satisfying to Sartain because he transferred to Hall this year after attending St. Bede.

Actually, the Bruins feel the match at 170 pounds was the defining factor of them finishing 3-1 instead of 4-0.

“There was an ex-Bruin on PC/Hall’s roster (Sartain) and Nick Lough wanted to wrestle him at 170,” SBA interim coach Gavin Kurtz said. “I wanted Nick to take a forfeit at 182. The kids convinced me to put him out there at 170 and double forfeit at 182. I was originally going to have (Ethan) Fleming go out at 170 and have Lough at 182. The worst that could have happened is we get free points for a forfeit and then the worse, lose by a pin. It would have evened out.

“We threw out Lough at 170, we double forfeited and Lough lost by a pin (2:12). Instead of being a wash at worst, we lost six points and that ended up being the difference in the dual. I didn’t want to take a match away from Ethan, but he came up to me and said, ‘The entire team wants this match.’”

Sartain wasn’t a novice to Lough’s style and welcomed the match.

The senior was excited to beat the Bruins, but the PC/H win was a team affair.

“Every win was crucial and all the guys came together to get the win,” Sartain said. “Connor Brooker got the first take down to get the technicality (criteria) where we wanted. It was fun to get a win against my old school. I used to wrestle Nick Lough in practice.

“I kind of knew what to expect because I wrestled him so much. He’s always been a strong, bigger guy and I kind of knew some of the stuff he was going to work with.”

Kriewald thought his team performed well throughout the entire Super Duals and showed the tenacity they needed to get the most points.

The Panthers beat Amboy 30-18, Marquette 36-24 and Mendota 35-18.

“We showed up and they wrestled tough,” Kriewald said. “When we needed six points, they went for the six points (pin). We didn’t have a single match that went six minutes. That’s not something I like to see so close to regionals — I like to see those longer matches that challenge the guys — but when we needed six points you got to do it. We pinned everybody that we needed to.

“There have been huge improvements. A lot of it has had to deal with mental blockage and making sure the guys are wrestling their best at the right time. We had kids in the last two weeks beat kids now that they lost to in the beginning of the year. They’re redeeming themselves for losses in the past and they’re looking good. They’re also very humble.”

Senior Joseph Mecagni went 4-0 for the Panthers at 285 pounds with two pins and two forfeits.

Although the Bruins lost to PC/H, Kurtz was proud of his team and how they competed on the mat.

SBA defeated Mendota 54-15, Amboy 59-6 and Marquette 48-2 before falling by criteria to PC/Hall. With the three dual victories, SBA has won 17 duals on the year which Kurtz believes is a school record.

“I thought we did great,” Kurtz said. “We lost one match against Marquette, two against Amboy and two against Mendota. We had five loses going into the last dual.”

Mendota didn’t win a dual, but coach Dale Meyers saw a lot of things he liked from his wrestlers.

Freshman Ethan Hanaman went 4-0 at 113 pounds and Tyler Preston was 2-2 at 126.

“We’re down to six wrestlers right now,” Meyers said. “Ethan Hanaman pinned a kid from Marquette, won against St. Bede and had two forfeit wins. Tyler Preston beat St. Bede by pin — that was his third pin of the year — had a win and then two losses.

“My girl, freshman Kailyn Gecewski, got into the second period for the first time without being stuck. Sam Lawrence is a first year sophomore and had a second-period pin. He was down 4-14 to Putnam County/Hall’s (Denzel Sobin at 152) when he reversed him and pinned him. All the kids have gotten better. We have good individuals, but we don’t have much as a team at this moment in time.”

Brandon LaChance can be reached at 220-6995, or sports@newstrib.com. Follow him on Twitter @NT_LaChance.