Sycamore succumbed to a pair of pins in the final two matches of its dual against Rochelle on Tuesday to finish the two-day Don Flavin Invitational with its second consecutive loss after beginning the day with a victory.

After going 1-2 on Monday, the Spartans picked up a 43-30 win over Moline on Tuesday morning before dropping duals to Lyons, 42-32, and Rochelle, 38-33.

Liam Schroeder (113/120), Jayden Dohogne (144), Douglas Gemberling (157) and Cooper Bode (165) all enjoyed perfect 3-0 days.

Adam Carrick (215) and Michael Olson (120) both wrestled twice and also came away victorious for the Spartans despite the team’s second straight 1-2 day.

Tech fall wins from Schroeder and Tyler Lockhart (126), pins from Olson and Sawyer Davis (132) and a 1-0 win from Dohogne over Housseyn Ndiaye proved key as the Spartans won five of the final six matches to defeat Moline.

“It was a tough match and I went out and knew it was going to be a tough match,” Dohogne said. “That kid was undefeated going into the match so I knew it was going to be a dogfight. I came out on top with an escape in the second period.”

Dohogne didn’t just battle tough opponents the past two days, but also a bug.

“I didn’t have that much confidence yesterday,” he said. “I woke up and took medicine for a sore throat so I came in sick and I actually lost my first match 4-1. I won my second match 8-4 and won my third match (fall at 1:37) but I didn’t wrestle the best yesterday. But I came back today and won all three.”

Carrick, Gemberling and Schroeder picked up big wins by fall in the dual against Lyons, while Bode and Dohogne prevailed by tech fall and Olson recorded a major.

The Spartans matched the Hubs with seven wins in their final dual, but Rochelle picked up five wins by pin as well as a forfeit victory. Bode, Tyler Sullivan (113) and Collin Hughes (285) earned pins for the Spartans.

Sycamore beat Rochelle in a conference dual earlier this year.

“I felt like we battled hard,” Bode said. “We were missing a lot of our key guys, but I think we wrestled hard, did a lot of good individual things, and some guys stepped up and gave us some wins which was good.”

Bode had a pair of pins on the bookends of a day that included an 18-3 tech fall over Lyons’ Cornell Fennessee.

“I wrestled well today, I had some quick matches,” Bode said. “But I think I wrestled through positions well and did what I needed to do.”

The Spartans are focusing on progress and as a 2A school competing in a premier 3A dual team tournament, perspective is important.

“I mean, it’s kind of go out there and prove ourselves,” Bode said. “Yesterday we didn’t do as well as we wanted to, but I think we’ve learned that we need to grow as a team a little bit. We just go out there and we wrestle. We know it’s going to be a dogfight and we try to win every match.”

And that includes everyone.

“We had five varsity starters out for our last dual so it was good to see our JV kids get some varsity competition and see how they’re doing so they know what to work on,” Dohogne said. “It was good to see them wrestle today.”