Lawrence High wrestling coach Mark Dulgarian said he didn’t really know what to expect from his young team heading into Tuesday night’s home-opening triangular against Blue Valley and Olathe North.

That was the same feeling Dulgarian said he had going into the last weekend’s season-opening tourney at Shawnee Mission East — and likely what he will feel when his team travels to Eudora Friday night.

While the Lions split Tuesday — losing to Blue Valley, 45-27, and knocking off Olathe North, 39-28, at LHS — Dulgarian says he just never knows how a team with eight sophomores in the starting lineup will react.

“They’re talented and very hardworking, but they just haven’t had a lot of mat time,” Dulgarian said. “You just never know how they’ll do.”

At times, the young Lions looked pretty good. Yet at others, the small crowd of wrestling fans had no problem pointing out rookie mistakes.

The Lions are learning on the fly, and Lawrence lacks the leadership it had a year ago.

Not only is third-place state finisher Aaron Madill gone, so, too, is state qualifier Kenny Poeverlein, and nine other seniors who graduated — six of whom were starters.

Lawrence has been bothered by a couple early injuries, forcing a few wrestlers to move up in weight class Tuesday night. The Lions are also without the help of ninth graders, who won’t compete for LHS until late December, and thus had to forfeit both the 103- and 112-pound classes.

Still, Lawrence held its own.

Lawrence High's Pharouk Hussein, right, tries to take down an opponent at the Lions' home triangular. Hussein dropped two matches, but LHS split Tuesday at LHS. The Lions beat Olathe North, 39-28, but fell to Blue Valley, 45-27.

“I thought we wrestled pretty darn good,” said junior Tim Giblin, who won both of his matches in the 189-pound weight class.

“We’re still trying to adjust to a lot of things, but everyone went out there and gave it their all.”

That was never more evident than when Lawrence’s Nathan Haig and Mark Albers battled to overtime victories.

Haig had his in the first dual against Blue Valley, when he battled Zach Ansaldo for a late take-down and the win.

Albers probably thought he had his match won against Olathe North’s Paul Markey. Instead the referee awarded Markey a point on a technicality and a late escape to tie the match and send it to sudden death.

6Sports video: LHS wrestling splits at home

Albers must have been fired up by the ruling, because he certainly wasted no time taking Markey to the mat for a 6-4 win.

The Lions were on pace for victory against Blue Valley. They tied the score at 21-all when Nolan Kellerman pinned Jamison Zakorva.

But the Tigers scored 24 of the next 30 points for the convincing win.

Dulgarian said Tuesday will serve as just another lesson for a young team.

“We had guys that should have come out with wins that didn’t, probably because of their inexperience alone,” he said. “Right afterwards they knew while things went the way they did, but that all comes from having more time on the mat.”