MUSKEGON TWP. - It's a little hard to celebrate too much when you haven't had the kind of night you wanted to have.
But the Reeths-Puffer wrestling team had reason to be pretty happy, anyway.
After going 5-0 in the conference standings in the regular season, the Rockets were hoping to take first place in the O-K Green tournament in their own gym on Friday night and sweep to the overall conference title.
Instead they finished in second place, behind Byron Center. But there was a very nice silver lining when it was all said and done.
Reeths-Puffer still won the overall conference championship, based on the regular season/conference tournament formula. 
R-P's Ian Cook battles his opponent in the finals. Photo/Jeremy Clark
The Rockets finished in first place in the regular season standings and Byron Center finished third, so the Rockets had a first and second, and the Bulldogs had a first and third.
That means the Rockets got the O-K Green trophy for the third year in a row, which is a big bragging point for this year's team and the overall R-P wrestling program.
"It wasn't what we expected, based on our performance in the last few weeks," said first-year R-P head coach Brad Cowles. "Some kids performed very well, particularly in the finals, but unfortunately we had a handful of kids who didn't show up to wrestle tonight. It just wasn't their night.
"The reason we have the trophy right now is because we did so well in the dual match portion of the season. Hopefully we can keep building on this next year."
One Rocket who had an extra reason to celebrate was senior standout Ian Cook, who won the 144-pound individual championship and improved his season record to 41-0.
R-P's Cory Judd, top, in the 126-pound finals. Photo/Jeremy Clark
The title made him a four-time conference champion. That comes after he recently won his fourth straight title at the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association Tournament.
Now, if Cook manages to make it to the state finals again, and wins All-State honors again, it will be another four-peat .
No Reeths-Puffer wrestler has ever won All-State honors four times in a row.
"It feels really good," Cook said about being a four-time GMAA and conference champion. "It's something not a lot of people can say they have done."
Cook's championship match, against Muskegon's Ke'Yaun Bradford, was actually more interesting than anyone expected, at least in the beginning.
R-P's Travis Henderson gives his opponent a lift. Photo/Jeremy Clark
Some heads were turning when the score was 0-0 after the first period. But Cook waited for his opening in the second period and pinned Bradford in 3:30 to secure the title.
"Sometimes you have those good matches when you are on, and sometimes you're a little off," Cook said. "But I was comfortable. I knew I could end up winning. You can't rush anything in this sport. Sometimes you have to wait for things to come to you. I waited and waited and pulled the trigger when I needed to."
Other weight class champions for the Rockets were Sage Secrest (215 pounds), Max Knowlton (106), and Travis Henderson (113).
Secrest quickly pinned Mona Shores' Davis McFarland in 37 seconds in his championship match.
Knowlton beat Caledonia's Max Schnurski by technical fall, 21-4, in his title match.
R-P's Hunter Eek, top, in the 157-pound finals. Photo/Jeremy Clark
Henderson beat Byron Center's Parker Kietzman by major decision, 13-5, to win his championship.
Coach Cowles was very happy with the way his champions wrestled.
"Max had a very solid performance," he said. "The kid he wrestled is a pretty solid kid. Travis looked really good. Ian had me scared for a moment there, but he kept moving and finished on top. Sage did really well, too. He barely beat that kid the last time they wrestled, and then he stuck him in the first period tonight."
Finishing as runners-up for R-P were Devin Welch (285), Corey Judd (126) and Hunter Eek (157).
Taking fourth place in their weight classes were Da'Honi Welsh (190). Blake Miller (120) and Aiden Neal (165).
R-P's Max Knowlton, top, in the 106-pound finals. Photo/Jeremy Clark
The final tournament team scores were a little sobering for the Rockets, who came in as the top seed but fell a few points short of winning the event.
Byron Center finished on top with 180 points, followed by R-P (158.5), Jenison (146.5), Caledonia (133), Muskegon (124.5) and Mona Shores (83.5).
Cook said he believes his team performs better in dual matches, when they are all together on one bench, cheering for each other, rather than spread around competing on multiple mats, often at the same time, in individual tournaments.
"We perform well in duals," he said. "We have the electricity of the team and we feel the power. We feed off that energy. In individual tournaments we don't have the team at our side all the time.
"But we had five duals in the conference and we went undefeated. Byron Center is always a good team and we beat them, Caledonia is the same thing, and Jenison really gave us a run for our money, but we had a really good dual that night. We have wrestled really well this season."
144-pound champion Ian Cook
113-pound champion Travis Henderson
106-pound champion Max Knowlton
215-pound champion Sage Secrest