SMYRNA — The Smyrna High wrestling team has had just about a week to practice together.

But that didn’t stop the Eagles from a dominant opening night dual meet victory.

Smyrna defeated St. Georges 53-9 on Wednesday evening in a nonconference matchup. The Eagles are still trying to get up to speed on the wrestling season after some of their wrestlers missed the opening weeks of practice because of Smyrna’s run to the Division I football championship.

Smyrna’s coach Kurt Howell said he wasn’t sure how things would go Wednesday but was pleased with the outcome.

“We’re a bunch of parts right now and this is the first time these parts have been together,” Howell said. “I’m trying to see how all these parts will play out in a dual meet. I think it worked out well for us tonight.

“It’s hard to know what to expect. Some kids came off the football field a week and a half ago. Those guys need to work on conditioning to get into wrestling shape but they’ll get there.”

The Eagles won the first seven matches for a 33-0 lead on their way to the victory.

Tony Wuest (195), Jacob Mitchell (220) and Nick Natarcola (106) recorded pins for Smyrna. Cole Sebastianelli (126) won via tech-fall while Tanner Mullen (160), Chase Poore (132), Chase Archangelo (138) and Dakota Kerr (152) posted major-decisions.

Three football players appeared in the starting lineup for Smyrna. Larsen Wilson won a 4-3 decision at 182 pounds, Hunter Moyer earned a decision at 170  and heavyweight Terren Carter picked up a win thanks to a forfeit.

“We haven’t been able to practice together a lot,” Wuest said. “It’s just been a bunch of clusters of people wrestling around. With that, I think we did well tonight. We know how to wrestle and we know how to fire each other up. We all love wrestling and we all want to win.”

There were still some football players held out as they try to recover from the grind of the long football season. Eli Hutchinson didn’t wrestle Wednesday and will not compete in the Beast of the East tournament this weekend because he is still banged up, Howell said. Kalen Wilson will be able to wrestle in the Beast of the East though.

One spot that isn’t going to get a boost from football players returning is at 113 pounds.

Smyrna forfeited that match to St. Georges. Howell said the Eagles are still searching for someone to take that position.

“We just can’t get any little guys out,” he said. “I don’t know what the deal is because we’ve got a lot of little guys in the school. This is a little guy sport. You’ve got weight classes where you can’t get out-sized.”

Also earning a win was Greg Baum (120) who won by a decisions.

Baum’s victory especially stood out to Howell. The sophomore defeated St. Georges’ Nick Novarnik who finished fifth in the state last year at 120 pounds.

“That Novarnik kid is a beast,” Howell said. “So that’s a nice win for Greg.”