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Once inside cavernous Hawkeye Hall, the expansive Roanoke Street digs of the Christiansburg High wrestling empire, infrequent visitors are struck that the setting on a new digital thermostat affixed to the wall is a toasty 80 degrees.

No surprise the Blue Demons are just starting to warm up.

Christiansburg prepared for its launch into the new year by capturing for the first time the championship of the PowerAde Christmas Tournament, which concluded its 40th run last week at Canon-McMillan (Pa.) High.

The PowerAde is reckoned to be the nation's fourth-toughest tournament by the deep thinkers at USA Wrestling. It's difficult to imagine Christiansburg being fourth-toughest at anything.

This weekend, the boys are off for the Battlefield Duals, another in a series of rugged tests in the multi-state grand tour leading to an attempt to win a sixth state Group AA crown in a row. First though, they baked this week in the high temperatures of their practice facility, all the better for conditioning purposes.

Which is not say that everything's cool for Christiansburg wrestling. For starters, maybe sometime 152-pound Sam Rakes' sore side will start feeling better.

Maybe not.

It's not easy taking to the mats with a broken rib.

"The doctor said it couldn't get any worse," Rakes said.

For who?

Certainly not the casualties Rakes left on route to a PowerAde championship, the second for the Demons in forging a 5 1/2-point margin over second-place Hempfield of the host state. Among his triumphs was a 4-2 in overtime semifinal victory over defending Pennsylvania AAA champion Ryan Goodman.

The other individual victory for Christiansburg was in the 215-pound class, where the unstoppable Cody Gardner, the team's most acclaimed wrestler, pinned his way to the final, where the winning score was 17-6.

Maybe Rakes should have taken it easy on the old rib cage. After all, when you must wear a pain-killing patch just to be able to pull on a T-shirt without wincing, a hiatus from hand-to-hand combat might be an alternate treatment option.

If so, Rakes did not consider it.

"It hurts pretty bad sometime," he said. "But I'm a senior. I don't have much longer to make a name for myself."

Actually, the Demons may have been able to do without him. Such was the case with 135-pound Syd Humphreys and 130-pound D.J. Weightman. Humphreys stayed home, felled by illness. Weightman is done for the year, a bad luck victim of a broken collarbone in the Beast of the East Tournament in Delaware last month.

Bobby Schafer was installed at 130 and Michael Giordano at 135 and the train kept rolling.

"We've done it before," said Daryl Weber, who succeeded Kevin Dresser as coach after the latter accepted the post at Virginia Tech. "You go with who you have."

Also missing was Andrew Robertson, a third-place state finisher at 112 last year, who is awaiting his academic eligibility to kick in later this month.

"We had holes in the lineup and still won it," Weber said. "I think that says something."

Others who spoke eloquently with the quality of their grappling last week included Tim Miles, third at 140; Charles Weber, fourth at 189; Ian Squires, seventh at 119; Andrew Clement, fifth at 145; and Brett Buckner, eighth at 171.

In Weber's view, Rakes, Miles and Weber were the keys to the victory because they wrestled beyond expectations.

As it stands now, it' going to be increasingly difficult for the Demons to wrestle beyond expectations. Those expectations are plenty high now.