By BRIAN ROSENER ~ DAR Sports Editor

Poplar Bluff's second-place finish at the Farmington Invitational last weekend was nice, unless you're Mules coach Brian Wisdom.

"Honestly, I'm a hard-to-please coach," Wisdom said.

The Mules won four dual matches by a combined score of 258-65 Saturday but a 48-24 loss to the host in the final match gave Wisdom plenty to be not pleased about. Farmington, the defending district champion, is currently ranked third in Class 3.

Poplar Bluff (5-1) won five matches, including pins by Colton Woodsmall, Paul Swesey and Dylan Janes, but lost a pair of matches by seven or fewer points and were pinned in six other matches.

Three of Poplar Bluff's losses were to defending district champions.

"I'm hard on them right now and I know it," Wisdom said. "There were some kids that I think were intimidated and we need to get over that.

"As a coach, I need to get us past the intimidation factor."

The Mules will get another crack at that this weekend at the Tiger Classic in Cape Girardeau which takes place Friday and Saturday at the Junior High. Poplar Bluff will feature the same lineup as last weekend.

Before facing the Knights on Saturday, Poplar Bluff beat O'Hara (60-27), Logan-Rogersville(78-6), Herculaneum (66-5) and St. Clair (54-27).

Swesey and Zach Surque finished unbeaten at Farmington while Janes, Ethan Swingle, Brandon Bounds and Cameron West were 4-1. Woodsmall, Jordan Henningson, Dallas Berry and Kelton Thompson each won three matches Saturday.

"I think we're going to see a lot of good things (but) we have to get beyond that intimidation factor," Wisdom said.

In the match against Farmington, Swingle won his 103-pound match 15-6 while Surque won 14-7 at 112. Woodsmall got a pin in 25 seconds while Swesey got a pin at the 2:39 mark and Janes at 3:02. to defending district champ Nicholas Hoehn with 6 seconds left in the third period while Brent Wagner and Storm McClure also lost to Farmington's district champs.

"I could see we've gotten better," Wisdom said.

He added that the goal is to be in top physical shape before Christmas and maintain that through districts in February.

'WRESTLE LIKE A GIRL'

Freshman Anna Fromm said she got mad when she heard Wisdom's critique late in the first period of her exhibition match at Dexter last week.

Seconds after Wisdom said "you wrestle like a girl" with a smile, Fromm pinned her opponent.

Poplar Bluff has had female wrestlers reach the varsity lineup in the past, but Fromm is unique in that she enters high school with six years of mat time.

"At first I was kind of nervous because I'm in high school now," Fromm said. "But whenever I went out there and got started I just kind of got into it more."

HOME OPENER

The Mules host the first of two home matches Tuesday night at Peters Gym with Sikeston in town.

The Bulldogs feature a pair of wrestlers who finished 5-0 at a tournament in Affton earlier this month. Gavilan Bland (171 pounds) returns from qualifying from state last season along with heavyweight Robert Madison.

Matches start at 6 p.m. with the Mules hosting Dexter on Jan. 24.