APEX - Thanks to a balanced lineup, the Cary wrestling didn't appear to miss a beat from last year in its Tri-Nine Conference opener at Apex on Wednesday night.

The Imps notched victories in each of the first five matches and 12 of 14 on the night for an easy 62-8 victory over the Cougars.

Cary isn't a defending conference champion for the first time in almost three decades, but the Imps did have talent that still needed replacing, particularly Navy recruit Ben Creed and Missouri recruit Boomer Boyd.

“Our team is laid out a little bit different," said second-year Cary coach Taylor Cummings. "We’re more of a balanced team than we were last year. We don’t have the superstars that we had, but every one of our guys can wrestle and every one of them should be shooting for the ultimate goal, which is states.”

The match kicked off at 138 pounds, where Cary senior John Blackwell outworked Apex’s Ty Burke for a 15-1 victory that put the Imps up 4-0 after one bout.

The Imps wasted no time building on that lead, scoring quick pins in each of the following three matches to send a decisive message to a young Cougars team that struggled against the perennially-strong Imps.

“I have a lot of freshmen and sophomores starting and very few seniors,” said Apex first-year coach Ross Little. “We’re getting beat off a lack of experience. I think the mystique of Cary got to some of our guys. Sometimes you forget everything you have learned in practice. We did a lot of stuff tonight that we don’t coach.”

Cary freshman 145-pounder Mark Mulligan notched the first of his team’s seven pins at 1:13 in the first period of his bout with Dan Krakowski of Apex. Seniors Adam Kugler and Bo Mulligan at 152 and 160 pounds, respectively, made it three pins in a row and gave the Imps a 22-0 lead that was never in question.

In the first evenly-matched battle of the evening, Cary’s Ryan Silverman prevailed 8-6 over Apex’s Nick Giamoni at 170 pounds.

Apex got the first of its two victories on the night when Jake Castagnero edged Cary’s Isaias Gonzalez in the closing seconds, 6-5 to bring the team score to 25-3.

The Imps stretched the lead to 43-3 on pins by 195-pounder Travis Bach and heavyweight Trent Wooten sandwiched around a forfeit victory for Corey Daniels at 220 pounds.

Following the one-sided bouts between both team’s heaviest competitors, Cary sophomore Nick Tarvin entered the third and final period of his 106-pound bout with Apex’s Chance Davis trailing 6-4. But Tarvin dominated the decisive third period to come away with a 12-7 decision and make it 46-3.

Easily the Cougars’ top performer on the night, Joe Furtick dominated his bout with Cary’s Ryan Garrigues at 113 pounds, earning a 15-0 tech fall early in the third period that closed the gap to 46-8.

The Imps responded with pins at 0:34 by Carlos Alvarez at 120 pounds and 0:42 by Adam Elliman at 126.

In the final individual bout of the match, Cary’s Alex Ynoquio defeated Evan Arrendondo 13-5 to account for the final score of 62-8.

Little said that he expected the one-sided matchup with an opponent as strong as Cary to help his young team learn a tough lesson that will be useful down the road. “Wrestling teams that are not as good as you are is not going to earn you anything," Little said. "Sometimes getting a loss puts you in the right frame of mind to come back and get a win. I always like to wrestle good competition - if my guys go undefeated, I haven’t scheduled hard enough.”