The Barton Community College wrestling team opened the conference dual season with a pair of losses Wednesday evening in its home opener at the Barton Gym.

Nearly pulling off an upset over No. 12 Cowley College to begin the triangular, Neosho County Community College rallied in the middle dual of the night winning five of the final six bouts to secure a 30-22 win over the Cougars. The Tigers used a 285-division pin in the opening match of the night to withstand the Panthers late surge in picking up a tightly 29-22 victory.

In the nightcap Barton fell on the wrong side of six Cowley pins and an open weight to eventually fall 42-15.

Dropping to 0-2 in conference play and 2-12 overall, the Cougars will step out of dual play Sunday traveling to Warrensburg, Missouri for the Denker Open before concluding the home slate next Thursday hosting No. 9 Pratt Community College.

Skyler McMullen (141) and Nathan Agudzi-Addo (285) delivered four of Barton's seven victories on the night each distributing back flattening victories in their pair of matches.

Jamal Garrett's opening round forfeit victory at 125 sparked a 6-0 start for the Cougars against the Panthers with McMullen's first of two first-period falls on the night and Jarret Mader's 13-5 major decision at 149 gifting Barton it's biggest advantage on the night at 16-5.

Dropping the next four tilts while being open at 197, the Panthers secured the match victory before Agudzi-Addo put the final points on the board serving up the first of his two pins in just 1:04 over Christopher Colwell.

McMullen's second fall of the evening coming just 2:44 into the 141-match against Beau Murphy halted a 12-0 Tiger start in the nightcap.

With the match already secured after five straight Tiger pins, Edgar Duarte-Quiroz delivered the most exciting match of the evening bouncing back from a rough second period fall to Neosho's Dylan Waggerman to split his evening's matches squeezing out a tightly contested 17-12 decision over Cowley's Brayden Merredith.

Agudzi-Addo sent the Barton crowd home happy capping his perfect night just before the second period buzzer serving up a 4:58 fall over the Tigers' Jacob Acedo