NILES — The two teams that took the mat in the season opener at Niles High School Wednesday night will not necessarily be the same ones that hits the mat in February when the state tournament gets under way.

But for the state qualifiers from last season, the season opener was a good measuring stick when it comes to starting to put the pieces together.

The host Vikings dominated Dowagiac 49-21, but Chieftain coach and former Niles standout Colin Burandt was not concerned with the outcome. Although he would have liked it to be a bit tighter, he understands that this is just the first step in trying to get back to Kalamazoo and the state finals.

“Niles is a tough team,” Burandt said. “We had a couple of matches that could have done the other way. A couple of the other matches could have been a lot closer than they were. It just comes down to basics and not getting pinned, keeping those matches close and scoring the points that we need to.”

After jumping out to an 11-0 lead on a forfeit at 103 and Michael Robles’ pin of Jorge Gamino-Rivero at 112, Dowagiac would drop the next two matches to Jamison Zimmerman and Carson Landon, who won by forfeit and a 5-2 decision respectively.

For Zimmerman, it was his 100th career victory.

“I was fortunate enough to get to 99 last year at the state tournament,” Zimmerman, who was disappointed he did not get to compete on the mat for the milestone victory. “I really wanted to compete.”

A win by the Chieftains’ Alex McIntosh at 130 pounds over Conner Pickens, a technical fall, would be the last for Dowagiac until Lamberto Paredes also scored a technical fall at 171 pounds. By then, the Vikings had already locked up the victory.

Veteran Niles coach Todd Hesson was happy to get the first match out of the way. Now he and his coaches can start focusing on what it is going to take to get to where they want to be this season.

“For the first night, I thought it went well,” he said. “Dowagiac does a good job, and Colin does a great job. You can see they are improving. Both lineups will be different by the end of the year. Some of our kids were up [a weight class], and some of his kids were up. Overall, right now our lighter weights are going to hold us up to 152 slash 160, and then we have to figure some things out up there.”

Hesson was happy with the performance of Lincoln Carrington, who was able to stay off his back.

“That is what I am looking for,” Hesson said. “They all wrestled well, but you are always looking at the next step and down the road. You are always trying to figure out, ‘ok, what is it going to take to be the teams down the road?’”

Niles will take that next step on Saturday as it heads to East Lansing for a tournament, while Dowagiac will travel to Vicksburg to compete in its annually tournament.

Burandt is looking forward to getting his team plenty of mat time.

“This year, we get to see the No. 6-ranked team in Lakewood, so that will be exciting. It is a good first week for us,” he said.