Thomas Jefferson handed host Federal Way a 54-18 loss in wrestling Thursday.

TJ moved to 2-0, but their wins against the winless Eagles and Auburn-Riverside will not be much in comparison to South Puget Sound League Central Division foes -- Todd Beamer and Decatur -- who yet to come on the season schedule.

But Raiders coach Jess Workman gave the lower teams in the league compliments.

"They're the dangerous teams, but they've got something to prove," said Workman, whose team won 10 of 14 weight classes and two of those four losses by his team were from forfeits at 103 and 112.

The Raiders' strongest guy on the mat is Kyle McIntosh, who uses sheer strength to bully most foes to defeat. He won his match by technical fall, 5:30 into the six minute duration broken into three rounds as is the customary timeframe for high school wrestling.

The final score of McIntosh' match was 28-12, the highest point total of any one wrestler and that's explained from McIntosh constantly shooting in and taking down his opponent or letting his opponent shoot (lunge) at him before taking him down.

He did this about 10 times in the duration of the match to make a final score that was only within a couple near fall point totals of the 28 total.

Near-fall points garner a wrestler three points and happen when a wrestler gets his foe on the mat on his back and close to a pin position but usually the foe gains enough squirm to turn over on his back.

What McIntosh did was something the same as fishing friendly -- catch and release -- as a way of saying it.

Or, to say it less mildly, the way McIntosh pushes opponents around the ring, sometimes out of the mat circle out of bounds, sometimes to the floor in a heated throwdown, is more prey oriented.

Why do you play with your opponents instead of pinning them as would be a simpler way of doing things?

"It was a lot of takedowns, and working on technique," said McIntosh, who basically said he just wanted to wrestle. He loves wrestling and besides his one moment of powerful fun for up to six minutes, he sits and watches teammates wrestle. Plus, "playing with the prey," so to speak, allows McIntosh to prepare down the line for bigger and better things...

Like wrestling at state?

"Yeah," said McIntosh. "Conditioning."

Conditioning for what comes after these league meets -- sub-districts, regionals and then state Feb. 20-21 at the Tacoma Dome.

McIntosh took fifth in the state at 140 pounds last year. He only lost to the second and third place wrestlers at state. He is 10-1 this season so far and his only loss was in a tournament to last year's state champ in 3A for his weight class. So, that's pretty good company to lose to -- that's pretty good company to be in.

And, it wasn't like the 3A champ beat McIntosh easy, like in a major decision (more than eight point spread of final score) or minor decision or technical fall (15-point spread). No, McIntosh lost in triple overtime.

McIntosh's record was 30-8 last year overall and this year he's gunning for number one.

To do that, he knows what he has done in the recent past and also has to do in the future.

"I did a lot of free style (wrestling) last summer," said McIntosh. " A lot of conditioning, a lot of weights."

There's always room for improvement, though, as the proverbial cliche goes. McIntosh knows he can get better per admitting he is working on his technique. His coach, Workman, knows, too.

"We have to keep him focused on what to do in the match," he said.

McIntosh looked focused on beating his opponent around the mat against the Eagles, but it was just the way it has to be to be a good wrestler said a teammate, Ivan Mukomol, a 2008 state placer (8th).

"He wrestles tough," said Mukomol, who would have been a state placer likely last year, too, but a grade issue that later proved unfounded kept him from wrestling at the Mat Classic.

Workman said that Mukomol is more of a finesse wrestler than McIntosh but also with plenty of upper body power. He needs to work on a thing or two, too.

"He's a slow starter," said Workman. "Kind of picks up, goes 60 mph at the end."

Another wrestler, KW Williams, also is a potential state wrestler this season according to Workman.

"He has got to believe he can do it," said Workman.

Ty Zumwalt was mentioned as well by Workman as one with potential to do well in the postseason.

The Eagles still are searching for team wins and individual wins, as a whole. But, as head coach, Travis Mango pointed out there are several on the team individually having done and that are doing strong -- boys and girls.

Levy Molina wrestled last year and did not get out of sub-districts but this season he is 20-8 and is wrestling very well for his 140 pound weight class. That's a big part of it,too, that is Molina's weight class that he was losing last year.

"I dropped three weight classes," said Molina, who won his match by pin, at 1:19, which was the fastest pin of the night. Ryan Scuderi of the Raiders got a pin at 1:20 and Zumwalt was at 1:35 as was Paul Johnson in there for a first round pin, 1:55.

But Molina credits his good wrestling record so far this season with what he did after subdistricts elimination.

"Right after subs I started lifting weights," said Molina, a captain, along with Langley Ngov and Jocie Weinburger. "I've been training non-stop."

Goals?

"I've already met one of my goals," said Molina. "I wanted to get three or four medals (in tournments) and I have four now."

Molina did admit one goal will go unreached -- he wanted a gold medal in a tournament and didn't get it. But he also has one last goal still to achieve.

"Advance to state," said Molina.

Molina's efforts have paid big.

"Definitely I've worked for it.," said Molina. "I was way too heavy for my weight class."

"He pushes it, and gives it everything he's got," said Mango, in his second year of steering the Eagles' ship that is making a big turn from where the program was before he came.

"Last year I was implementing things in the program," said Mango. "This year I want them to buy into things."

The wrestlers will tell you they have.

Weinberger, who took second in the state last year in girls wrestling at the T-Dome, nodded her head as Molina said, "We've grown in numbers from last year. Our coach has put in time, a lot of time. He's dedicated."

And added Weinberger, "We've already tripled statistics as far as takedowns, pins, wins, in general, far as this point in the season with last season. Wrestlers have stayed around, too."

That last part speaks of the numbers growing as Molina mentioned and the girls are nice to have out there for the guys, who can teach them. And, yes, you may have guessed what comes next, learn from them, too.

"I've learned to be less uptight from the girls," said Molina. "I was pretty uptight last year. This year I'm not so super tight."

"I've noticed," said Weinberger. And both smiled.

What do girls do different from guy?

"They train with the guys," said Molina, pausing, thinking of something to say to the question just asked him. And, Weinberger added in quickly, "We wrestle smart."

"Yes," said Molina, affirmatively.

The girls for Federal Way wrestling are pretty good then, Levi?

"They are the best in the league," said Molina.

What about "advancing to state" for Levi, Jocie? Is that what Molina is going to do?

"Yeah, Levi is going to go to state. He's going to get first."

The rest of the season will be good for the Eagles to keep on keeping on improving and getting this program resurrected under Mango's dedicated leadership. For the Raiders, they were 3-5 last year in league and look to improve this year. The way to improvement will come through the likes of Beamer and Decatur, however.

"Hopefully our kids are ready to wrestle them," said Workman, adding, "Decatur is the team to beat."

And don't forget Beamer. They lost by one point to the Gators in a league dual match already completed earlier this season in mid-December that Beamer led until the very last wrestle of the night.

The girls wrestling for the Eagles all have winning records against girls. Maria Manzueta is 2-1, Bianca Arizpe is 2-0, Kaylee Harris is 3-0, and Weinberger 4-0.

Some even have winning records for the season, which means they've beaten some boys, like Harris (10-7) and Weinberger (6-4). Some other TJ winners were Mike Roybal at 119 (pin 1:30), Matt Cruz (pin 3:54), KW Williams (pin 3:54). Godfrey Meafou, for the Eagles, won in the heavyweight class by injury default in the second round. That was a good match against Zach Walin for the Raiders, who led, 8-2, before Meafou came back and tied it and the injury default happend then.

"He's 14-6, he's small in the 285 weight class, but I've seen him throw a 285 pound man."

The Eagles are on the up and up.

"We are very young, with a lot of freshmen and sophomores. We are excited for next year," said Mango.

The Raiders are older certainly, experience wise.

"We had nine regional qualifiers last year," said Workman.

McIntosh sees good things for his team, too.

"We have a lot of depth in all weights," said McIntosh.

That says a lot. But if it says enough to take on the likes of Beamer and Decatur successfully this season remains to be seen.