The DeKalb boys wrestling team had a long talk on Tuesday at the Don Flavin Invitational.

It was an optimistic gathering of grapplers and the message was heard loud and clear as it carried onto the mats as the Barbs overwhelmed Glenbard East, 63-14, and Pewaukee, Wisconsin, 59-10, after overcoming a tough 39-36 loss to Prospect to begin their second day of competition.

The Barbs went 0-3 on the first day of their home tournament on Monday.

“I wouldn’t say that it was more the tough competition, I would say yesterday I feel like our team is way better than that if I’m going to be honest with you,” said Cam Matthews, who won three matches at 150 pounds for the Barbs. “Right after warm up we had a long talk, me and the other captain talking to all our teammates that it’s going to be way better today. We got to come out and wrestle for each other and stay more focused than we were yesterday.”

The dual against Prospect finished at 144 as the Barbs rallied with decision victories from Sam Howard (120) and Tyler Daub (126), and a forfeit win from Ayden Shuey’s (132), but Prospect got a pin in 52 seconds from James Fidler (138) which rendered moot the tech fall from Midaris Chappelle (144) since Prospect was ahead 39-31 at the time.

“Today was a new day and we came out a little slow, (but) it was a close match,” Matthews said. “The other two duals that we had, we cleared them for sure. We looked way better and I’m proud of my man Malik (Warren) who looked way better than where he was yesterday. He might’ve been a little in his head, but he looked amazing today.”

Warren got pinned twice on Monday before finishing with a pin of Lyons’ Chris Hines in 1:32 in the Barbs’ final dual of the day.

That success carried over less than 24 hours later, as he pinned Prospect’s Nicolas Mansour (1:21) and Glenbard East’s Nathan Romanovic (1:55) before finishing with a 17-2 tech fall over Pewaukee’s Tommy Jaeger.

“I’ve been dealing with a lot of family stuff and my coaches just assure me they’re always there for me,” Warren said. “They kind of made me feel more safe and allowed me to buy into it more and go out there and put my body on the line. I feel like I had a really good day today and we’re back at it with Yorkville on Saturday, another tough team and they’re in the placing round, so we’re going to have to be ready for them but I think we’re going to be ready.”

Shuey has to be ready at all times to wrestle, but he was only afforded the opportunity to do it for 48 seconds as that’s how long he needed in his pin against Glenbard East’s Danny Delgado. Shuey received forfeits in DeKalb’s other two duals. Shuey’s lone tourney loss was his opening loss to St. Charles East’s Declan Sons on Monday.

“I mean, you always got to be prepared,” Shuey said. “Whenever you have a forfeit, you don’t know you have a forfeit. Still got to warm up and treat every match like it was the one before, eat the same meals, stay consistent.”

Opening with a tight loss to Prospect wasn’t the intended start.

“We lost our first match again today, but I like how young and hardworking the team is,” Shuey said. “We’re a really hardworking team and the freshmen and sophomores are stepping up. I like the fact that they can step up. We got to get better at staying off our backs. That’s what we got to do to get better.”

Chappelle (144) won all three of his matches for the Barbs. Matthew Frykman (106), Tyler Daub (126), Hussul Greer (175) and Mario Cosme (190) all won twice.