Eudora ? Eudora High wrestler Josh Barr might have to get some new cheerleaders.

Despite pinning his third straight opponent Friday night in his first meet back from a leg injury, one of Barr’s classmates wasn’t quite satisfied with the senior’s effort on the first day of the Eudora Tournament of Champions.

The friend jokingly yelled to Barr that “he took too long” because he waited until the second period to record the fall over Mill Valley’s Chase Elliot.

“Those guys are pretty brutal,” a smiling Barr said of the friendly trash talk that came from his cheering section. “If you don’t pin your opponent as soon as you lock arms with him, they’re on you.”

But it was the 189-pound Barr — who missed the Cardinals’ first dual and tournament last weekend because he still was recovering from a severe knee sprain he suffered in the Cardinals’ football playoff loss to Topeka Hayden — who proved too much for all three of his opponents.

“Obviously, my timing and conditioning are a little off, but I felt healthy out there,” said Barr, who earlier in the football season hurt his left ankle. “I probably could have wrestled last weekend, but I wanted to try rest up one more week.”

Friday was the first day of the two-day, 24-team tournament that will conclude with championship finals this evening.

Eudora coach Bill DeWitt said if it wasn’t for the magnitude of this weekend’s tourney — which features a host of the state’s top-ranked wrestlers and even a few nationally-ranked grapplers — that he might have held Barr out even longer.

“But you know you’re not going to keep a kid like him from wrestling in a meet like this one,” said DeWitt, of Barr, who finished sixth at state last season in the 189-pound weight class. “That kid just wrestles with pure heart, and he’s been waiting all year to get back out there.”

Eudora's Michael Whitten, back, tries to pin Lawrence High's Nathan Haig. The two tangled in the 140-pound weight class during the first round of the Eudora Tournament of Champions on Friday.

DeWitt said he was pleased with Barr’s performance Friday, and added that he will get quite a challenge today if he happens to meet up with either of the recent state medalists in his weight bracket.

Barr could square off with Overland Park Aquinas’s Neil Cisper, a two-time state champ, or Holton’s Jesse Strawn, who was runner-up at 160 pounds in 4A last season after the brackets are re-seeded following the fifth round of preliminary matches.

“Today is going to be a real big test for me,” Barr said.

Probably too for both Lawrence High and Free State, who faired well through their early rounds thanks to the leadership of their returning state qualifiers.

“This is just a real solid tournament that seems to be getting bigger and bigger each year,” Free State coach Darrell Andrew said. “I think the city kids did about what they were expected to on the first day. Several kids will come back tomorrow and get a good test.

“And that’s really why teams come to this caliber of a tournament so early in the season, to see where they stand.”