GODFREY —There are good dual-meet wrestling teams and there are good tournament wrestling teams. The way Alton’s Eric Roberson sees it, his Redbirds are a little but of each.

The Redbirds showed their dual meet strength Wednesday night at home and grabbed a 54-24 victory over Southwestern Conference rival Belleville East.

The victory wrapped up Alton’s SWC action and clinched a tie for third place in the league with Collinsville.

“Third’s good in this league,” Roberson said. “There is so much parity in the conference now, aside fromEdwardsville, which has put a little distance between them and the other teams.

“And O’Fallon has kind of snuck up on some people the last couple years, too. They have a strong group of juniors and they’re really a good dual-meet team, meaning they have at least one strong wrestler at just about every weight class. That’s what it takes to win dual meets.”

Alton finished 4-3 in the league and is 13-5 overall heading into Thursday’s nonconference home matchup with area rival Roxana. East is 1-6 in the SWC.

“I didn’t want to set a specific goal before the season, as far as how many conference wins I wanted,” Roberson said. “The goal was only that we be competitive and improve as the season went on and I’ve seen that.

“We’ve done well in duals, but we’ve held our own in tournaments,” Roberson said. “I guess you could say we’re part dual meet team and part tournament team. To do consistently well in tournaments, you need to have at least three or four guys wrestling for first place. This year, we’ve had two or three, which isn’t bad.”

Wednesday’s match featured either pins or forfeits at every weight class, except two of the last three, 195 pounds and 220 pounds. The entire affair took less than an hour to complete.

The Redbirds opened with a pair of wins by fall, followed by a pair of forfeit victories.

At 106 pounds, Garrett Simms pinned the Lancers’ Carson Gamboe in 2:45. At 113 pounds, Nigel Ward pinned Trey Fernandez in 4:17.

Following forfeit wins by Keonte Johnson at 120 andCourtney Wilson at 126, Alton’s Conner Broyles won at 132 pounds when he pinned East’s Justin Sanders in 2:33.

East’s Brandon Bruce got a win at 138 pounds when he pinned Alton’s Keith Perry in 1:15. But the Redbirds came back at 145 when Alejandro Lopez pinned East’s Alex Eastman in 1:34.

Alton forfeited the next two weight classes, 152 and 160 pounds.

At 170 pounds, Alton’s Nolan Woszczynski grabbed another win when he pinned Ian Austin of east in 3:52.

Keontay Holmes of the Redbirds followed with a pin of East’s Brandon Jenkins to win at 182 pounds.

East then the only two decisions of the match. Josh Jones edged Alton’s Reggie Rhines 4-2, followed by a 3-1 win by East’s Duane Hill over Alequan Russell.

Alton’s Ryan Kane capped the match by pinning DarrellSimmons in 1:24 of the heavyweight bout.

“Broyles and Lopez have been very consistent for us,” Roberson said. “And Holmes has also. Tonight, things went pretty much as I expected. We thought (Holmes) had a chance at beating Hill at 220 and he gave it a real good shot.

“We started a little slow, but we wrestled pretty well once we got going.”

Reach Pete Hayes at 463-2500 or Twitter @HayeserPete