EDWARDSVILLE — The Edwardsville Tigers set a precedent over the years of setting lofty goals for its wrestling program.

And among those are winning Southwestern Conference titles, which becomes the first step of bigger and better things.

The Tigers are on the verge of accomplishing that first step with a 52-24 dual win over Alton on Thursday at the Jon Davis Wrestling Center, a triangular that also included Belleville Althoff.

The Tigers (17-3 overall and 5-0 in the SWC), also defeated 18-7 Althoff 48-24, and the Redbirds (12-5, 3-2) finished off their win against Althoff 47-28.

But with the win over the Redbirds, the Tigers have remaining dual matches with East St. Louis and Belleville East, and with a one-game lead over O’Fallon, the Tigers are on the cusp of a sixth straight conference title and 11 in the past 12 years.

“We put a lot of emphasis on it,” Edwardsville coach Jon Wagner said of winning the SWC. “We put a lot of emphasis to be at our best for these nights. We take it very seriously. We don’t take anybody lightly. We like winning Southwestern Conference championships. And don’t get me wrong, we want to go farther than that, but our conference is very good, our conference has a lot of good coaches and we respect them and we want to win.”

Edwardsville won its first three matches by pinfall from Baylor Montgomery at 152, Guy Brown at 160 and Markell DeBerry at 170 before Alton, which has a strength at the upper weight classes, came back with wins from KeOntay Holmes at 182, Keyondrick Russel at 195 and Grady Womack at 220, all by pinfall. Then Ryan Kane won a hotly contested 3-2 ultimate overtime decision over Lloyd Reynolds.

“Their strength is in the upper weights and we’ve just got numerous guys out of the lineup now,” Wagner said. “I think our whole team is sick. Some guys wrestled sick and some guys we kept at home. Obviously we’re not at full strength, but that’s the sign of a good team when you’re not at full strength and you can still plug some guys in. Kudos to those guys that got in like Sam Martin and Bo Meikamp.

“Those first three pins were important and that nice overtime match with Lloyd at heavyweight. That was real positive.”

But Edwardsville, down 21-18, came back with the lower weights, and that’s where the strength of the Tigers falls into place.

Ben Lunn got a forfeit win at 106, but then Luke Odom at 113, Noah Surtin at 120, Jack Evans at 132, and Joe Griffin at 138 came up with pinfall wins. Rafael Roman won by major decision 17-5 at 145, and Hunter Hobbs won a 7-2 decision at 126.

“They’ve got some hammers there down low, down in those low weights and that’s where we’re a little bit young and inexperienced,” Alton coach Eric Roberson said of the Tigers. “I knew that coming in, but I just think our guys need to battle a little bit tougher. Even in the matches that maybe they’re outmatched, they’ve got to learn how to battle. They need to see this competition because this is what we’re going to be battling very soon come regional time.

“Our upper weights did a good job for us. They kind of kept us in it a little bit, but we need to get our lineup more consistent from lights to heavys. I think everybody has improvement to make in the lineup. We kind of got our eyes open pretty quick here.”

The win was especially satisfying for Edwardsville, which was coming off the tough Cheesehead Tournament in Wisconsin last weekend.

“It was a hard week coming off the Cheesehead,” the freshman Odom said. “Just practices and trying to get our weight back down to be able to do this. I feel like we were pretty confident getting ready to wrestle Alton. Noah and Ben are good practice partners. We push each other every day in the practice room.”

“They’re hammers down there and not only are they good, but they pin,” Wagner said of his lower weights. “They’re pinners. They get a lot of pins for us, so that’s a lot of bonus points. … We’ve got some young guys up top that will continue to get better.”

Alton came away with the comfortable win over Althoff, but Holmes lost a 9-3 decision to the tough Zac Braunagel, who moved up a weight class from 170 to 182.

“That was good for both kids,” Roberson said. “I kind of had a hunch they might do that. That’s good, that’s good for both guys. They’re from different classes. Two real good wrestlers there. That match came down to conditioning. That was it, it came down to who was in better shape.”

Garret Sims, who lost to Odom, won by pinfall, as did Pierre Evans at 138 against Grace Kristoff, the daughter of former CM state champion Kip Kristoff; Courteney Wilson won by pin at 145, as did Christian Everage at 170, Russel at 195 and Womack at 220.

“We can’t overlook Althoff,” Roberson said. “I don’t care what class they are. They put 14 kids out there and they’re got some tough kids in the lower weights and in that kind of lower-middle area, we knew exactly what we were in for. We were glad to get out of here with a team win.”

EDWARDSVILLE 52, ALTON 24

106 — Ben Lunn (E) won by forfeit; 113 — Luke Odom (E) pinned Garrett Sims 2:38; Noah Surtin (E) pinned Gus Kodros 2:40; 126 — Hunter Hobbs (A) dec. Dylan Wright 7-2; 132 — Jack Evans (E) pinned Lucas Tankersley 2:49; 138 — Joe Griffin (E) pinned Pierre Evans :49; Rafael Roman (E) maj. dec. Courteney Wilson 17-5.

152 — Baylor Montgomery (E) pinned Scott Storey 1:53; 160 — Guy Brown (E) pinned Nolan Woszczynski 2:40; 170 — Markell DeBerry (E) pinned Christian Everage 3:29; 182 — Keontay Holmes (A) pinned Tyler McCracken 1:32; 195 — Keyondrick Russel (A) pinned Sam Martin 1:28; 220 — Grady Womack (A) pinned Bo Meikamp 1:27; 285 — Ryan Kane (A) dec. Lloyd Reynolds 3-2.

ALTON 47, BELLEVILLE ALTHOFF 28

106 — Matthew Minick (BA) won by forfeit; 113 — Garret Sims (A) pinned Isaiah Bernal 3:25; 120 — Anthony Frederico (BA) dec. Gus Kodros 8-0; 126 — Chase Bittle (BA) pinned Hunter Hobbs 1:35; 132 — Max Kristoff (BA) pinned Lucas Tankersley 1:28; 138 — Pierre Evans (A) pinned Grace Kristoff 5:14; 145 — Courteney Wilson (A) pinned Codi Harris 3:52.

152 — Danny Braunagel (BA) tech. dec. Scott Storey 22-6; 160 — Nolan Woszczynski (A) maj. dec. Austin Carey 13-0; 170 — Christian Everage (A) pinned Zach Guerrero 1:43; 182 — Zac Braunagel (BA) dec. Keontay Holmes 9-3; 195 — Keyondrick Russel (A) pinned Jacob Shields :58; 220 — Grady Womack (A) pinned Andrew Mcelligot :55; 285 — Gage Rainey (BA) pinned Ryan Kane 1:24.