The Ballard High School wrestling team earned its first win of the season 34-30 over Franklin Dec. 17.

Six out of the seven Beaver wrestler won their matches. Madison Young, Austin Fisher, Preston Parris and Matt Kelly won by fall. Luke Fabian and Christopher Thomas won by technical fall.

"It was a great confidence builder for the kids to get a team win," coach Luke Hagler said. "The wrestlers we have on the mat right now are showing improvement and working hard."

The team was missing wrestlers in a number of weight classes, but Hagler said they were lucky that Franklin was also missing players in most of those classes, limiting forfeits.

Ballard wasn't so lucky against the O'Dea High School junior varsity and freshmen team in the second match of the evening.

Five of Ballard's six wrestlers beat their opponents, but the Beavers still lost 47-23 because of forfeits.

Soren Heinecke and Fabian won by fall. Fisher and Thomas won by major decision. Parris won by decision.

Ballard is 1-4 overall this season.

"The team is still young and will need to continue to develop their skills and conditioning as we continue with the tough KingCo schedule," Hagler said.

The Beavers take on Bellevue at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 7 at Bellevue High School.