About halfway through the season, it seemed as if Washington’s wrestling team was a little bit better this year than last year. That’s what it needed after falling short by one point in the regional semifinal last season.

The Pam Pack proved it at Croatan’s Beast of the East. It hoped that its annual Eli Saleeby dual-team tournament would provide another opportunity to demonstrate improvement. However, Cary downed Washington, 48-27, to win the event again.

Instead, the tournament provided some learning experiences for Washington. It highlighted some shortcomings that the Pam Pack will address when it gets back to work on Tuesday.

“Obviously, you don’t want to lose. I thought the guys wrestled hard up until the match against Cary,” coach Chris Penhollow said. Washington stormed past Edenton and Pasquotank “I believe there were some things we could’ve done differently, which we’ll address at practice. They wrestled smarter than we did.”

Washington was also in a jam after one of its starters overslept the weigh ins and his backup didn’t make weight. That forced adjustments, compromising the team’s ideal lineup.

Penhollow added that it came down to smarts on the mat. Cary, when outmatched, would do better to dictate the pace of the match. That lends itself to, even in loss, conceding three points via decision instead of six in a pin.

“Their kids did a much better job of managing the match,” Penhollow said. “They were wrestling smarter, as far as not giving up a pin. … They had three or four kids that wrestled stubborn and stayed out of trouble.

“Then, on the other hand, my guys that were outmatched need to do a better job of doing exactly that. That probably falls on me as a coach.”

It’s a concept that the Pam Pack has had to embrace and work on in past years. Sometimes the wrestlers are successful in picking it up. They have a good amount of matches left ahead before regional competition starts.

“Some kids get it and some kids don’t,” Penhollow. “In dual-match format, sometimes the loss can really be a win if you manage it.”

It’s all about improvement. Washington won’t see Cary, a 4-A team, again this season. The Pam Pack will be traveling every weekend from now until the end of the season. It continues this coming weekend at Edenton.

“We’re ready for the second-half push,” Penhollow said. “There will be a couple of good Virginia schools coming down (to Edenton). We need to wrestle better teams so we know how to handle being up against it. … I told the coach from Edenton, ‘Hey, it’s your tournament, but if you would, throw me in with the toughest teams.’”

Washington also travels further east on Wednesday to compete at Manteo. Its next 2-A Eastern Carolina Conference bout will be at South Lenoir on Jan. 12.

Even with the loss, Penhollow considered the tournament a resounding success. The stands were packed throughout the event and the atmosphere was exciting.