Julian Hartwig was focusing on his DeKalb team rather than himself during Day 1 of the Don Flavin Invitational at DeKalb on Monday afternoon.

It certainly worked for Hartwig, who won all three of his matches, but it didn’t prove to be nearly enough for the Barbs, who dropped duals to St. Charles East and Mukwonago, Wisc., before closing the evening with a loss to Lyons.

“I was just focusing on the team rather than myself,” Hartwig said. “I was like, you know, got to get six (points via a pin) for the team. I’m trying to give us the best chance at winning this whole thing even if others don’t do too well.

“It’s all right. We’ll just pick up where they left off, you know? It’s definitely a battle, but we push through it. Now we’re just onto the next best thing.”

Hartwig’s 18-3 technical fall victory over Maximus Aye at 106 accounted for DeKalb’s only win in a 67-5 loss to eighth-ranked St. Charles East.

It was definitely not the kind of start DeKalb coach Sam Hiatt was eyeing.

“It’s a tough tournament; every team here is good,” Hiatt said. “Obviously, the results were not what we wanted, but after the first dual we talked about how we wanted our effort and energy to pick up and battle harder, and although the results weren’t what we wanted, I thought we did that.

“Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have a good day and put this behind us and keep battling and working on getting better.”

The Barbs hung with Mukwonago, trailing 30-26 with three matches remaining. Ayden Shuey earned a tech fall win over Charlie Johnson at 132, but the Barbs dropped their remaining two matches and came up short, 40-31.

Hartwig pinned Ahmad Dissi to win in 41 seconds at 113. Nick Waddle pinned Nathan Ipsa in 1:19 at 285 for the second of two pins for the Barbs in the dual loss. Midaris Chappelle earned a 2-1 decision over Gabe Erdmann at 144, Henry Vanderbleek received a forfeit victory at 150, and Cam Matthews earned a 17-1 tech fall over Austin Ahler at 157 for the team’s other wins.

Lyons took advantage of six straight victories, including four pins and a forfeit, to defeat the Barbs in their final dual of the night, 49-26.

Malik Warren bounced back from two losses by fall at 157 to pin Chris Hines in 1:32 to get into the win column. Joining him was Sam Howard, who earned a 26-10 tech fall over Ignacio Rodriguez at 120.

Matthews moved up to 157 and earned a 7-2 decision over Jesse Nunez-Garcia for his second win of the day after opening on the other end of a 12-4 major to St. Charles East’s Gavin Woodmancy at 150.

“The first match was a little tough one,” Matthews said. “Bounced back with the other two for sure. Last one was a little tough, but we got through it, and I hope to have more wins tomorrow, for sure.”

Now a senior, Matthews is well aware of the magnitude of this tournament.

“Whoever we’re going against, if it’s the No. 1 team or if it’s the worst team ever, we’ve got to stay calm and composed, got to stay focused,” he said. “Hopefully tomorrow is the next best thing and we go out swinging.

“We’ve got to get more fire in us. I feel like at the start, we’ve been kind of slugging and everyone’s quiet, I guess, with first-match jitters or something. I don’t know.”

Shuey joined Matthews in picking up his second victory against Lyons, pinning Will Anderson at 3:05 in the second-to-last match of the dual.

Hartwig made his day a 3-0 one when he pinned Declan Driscoll in 1:02 at 113.

The Barbs resume Tuesday morning with duals against Prospect, Pewaukee, Wisc., and Glenbard East.