TILTON – Jack Olsen was going to skip this one. The Bow senior has been out sick for a week, and he was still under the weather on Wednesday before the Falcons wrestling match at Winnisquam.

But when Bow Coach Brock Hoffman told Olsen his team needed him, the senior captain shook off the sickness and took the mat.

“Then he went out there and pinned the kid,” Hoffman said. “Not bad for not wrestling all week. He really stepped it up as a captain.”

Olsen’s pin was one of the key wins for the Falcons as they earned a 51-30 Division III dual meet decision against the Bears.

“Winnisquam was supposed to be one of the top teams in the division, so I’m really happy with the win, that was a big win,” Olsen said. “It was one of these matches where we were giving up a lot of forfeits, so I was expecting probably to lose, honestly. It was big confidence booster for the team.”

“We had to move some kids around and some kids had to adapt, and I thought they did a good job with that. I was impressed,” Hoffman said. “This was a battle of two young teams and it could have gone either way, tonight was just our night.”The illness Olsen is fighting went through much of the Bow team over the holiday break, which is part of the reason for the forfeits and why Olsen’s presence was so important. The Falcons normal roster was shuffled and shrunken.

While the Falcons had to fight sickness and weight issues for a week, Winnisquam has been dealing with plenty of its own obstacles all season. The Bears hope to get most of those resolved and get as many as six wrestlers back in the lineup for the D-III championship at the end of February.

But the challenges just keep coming for Winnisquam, which may have lost Reece Crawford for the season with an injury he suffered against Bow’s Zackary Anderson, who was awarded the six-point injury default win at 120 pounds.

“What you see now is light years away from what it’s going to look like when states come around. We’ve got a lot more, as long as a lot of the outside stuff we’re battling works out,” Winnisquam Coach Paul Hyrcuna said. “We just got another injury today. There hasn’t been one thing that’s gone our way. I’m not a person that shies away from the battle, but it’s always a battle.”

Wednesday night’s battle started at 160 pounds, where Bow’s Alex Bouffard took a 6-2 lead into the second period before winning by fall with :34.3 left in the second.

Winnisquam answered at 170 where Bow’s Aidan Hyslop was in control against Andrew McKinnon before the Winnisquam sophomore found a headlock that led to a pin with :13.8 to go in the second period.

Next up came 182 and Olsen, who didn’t go through his normal warm-up routine because he was trying to conserve energy. He went through moves in his head and the mental preparations worked as he pinned Mason Lacasse after 1:31.

“Once I got the feel for it, I knew it was going to be a quick match,” Olsen said. “Then I did what I could to finish it off and got out of there so I could sit down.”

The next match was the only one that went the distance as Bow freshman Chris Wheeler used some impressive strength to earn his varsity win, a 10-5 decision against Winnisquam’s Damian Donahou.

Five of the next seven matches were decided by forfeit. The only contested bouts came at 285, where Winnisquam’s Tyler Moran worked a first-period pin, and at 126, where Bow’s Anderson held a 6-0 lead before Crawford was injured.

By the end of that seven-match stretch, the Falcons held a slim 33-30 lead. But they closed things out with three straight pins – junior captain Mark Borak (138) in the second period, freshman Jonathan Muise (145) in the first period and junior Ben Boufford (152) in the third period.

“It was a barn burner and we fought hard,” said Hoffman, who got a wry smile on his face before adding a final thought. “We’re trying to build a program, and to finally start getting some dual meet wins is a new and refreshing feeling.”