CAIRO – The Cairo Syrupmakers wrestling team may not have won all its matches Saturday at a duals tournament at Tift County High School, but it did compete and improve against quality competition.

“It was very good, quality competition. It was a well-run tournament there at Tift County,” Cairo wrestling coach Scott Marshall said. “We definitely came out, our guys wrestled hard the whole time. They didn’t have any quit in them at all. They went 100%, even wrestling the bigger schools like Lee County and Thomas County. They’re 6-A and we’re down here at 4-A. Our guys came out and fought hard. We were impressed to see that.”

Cairo finished in third place in the silver bracket. It went 2-3 with wins over Northside-Warner Robins and Veterans while losing to Thomas County Central, Lee County and Bainbridge. Cairo lost to the Bearcats 36-33.

“It was very close. If any match would have went differently, it would have went our way,” Marshall said.

Cairo’s standout wrestlers included Cedric Smith, who finished 3-1 in the heavyweight division, while Jakin Ross (175-pound weight class) finished 4-1.

Cairo will return to the mats on Wednesday with a home meet versus Chiles High School (Fla.).