The Staples Motley wrestling team traveled to Maple River High School near Mankato Saturday for their seven-team tournament, taking second place with three individual champions.

New Ulm, Medford, Martin County West, Mankato West, Madelia/Truman- Martin Luther and host Maple River were the Cardinal opponents. The Eagles from New Ulm took first place with 218 points.

Three Cards came home champions; Chandler Trout, Dylan Shequen and Brandon Flickinger. Many other Staples Motley boys had a great afternoon, wrestling and placing well.

Trout, wrestling in the 160 pound class, had three matches and pinned two of his opponents.

Coach Dan Bjerga commented, “Chandler has a style of wrestling that is quite different than most and very exciting to watch. I get really nervous watching him do some of the things he does, but he always seems to come out on top.” Trout has only lost one match so far this season and has a record of 10-1.

Flickinger, who wrestles

140, went 3-0 including a fall. “Brandon had a great day!”

Bjerga said. “He wrestled with excellent control and didn’t make any mistakes. I was very happy to see Brandon perform as well as he did and am expecting to see him continue to get better and better over the next few months.”

Shequen at 171 pounds put down one pin and went 2-0, improving his record to 9-2. “Dylan is getting better and better each week. He had a very exciting first match and showed a lot of determination to win,” Bjerga said.

Three other Cards were in the finals but ended up in second place. Two Cards fell lfrom the undefeated ranks.

Jordan Bendson, the Cardinals top ranked wrestler in the state in his weight class, suffered his first lose of the season. He met a tough wrestler from Medford, Brand Keller, in the finals at 152. The match went into sudden death overtime. He is now 10-1.

Blake Petrich (189), who had two pins, and Ryan Detloff, both finished in second as well. Detloff was undefeated until the finals where he was decisioned by a New Ulm athlete, putting his record at 10-1.

“I honestly believe that Ryan could have won that match and he knows that he could have won as well,” Dan observed. “If a wrestler can learn something from losing a match, then it could actually prove to be of great value to them by the end of the season.”

Jordan Heldman competed at 112 and went 2-1 to place third. Blake Miller had a hard night; in his first match his opponent executed an illegal slam and broke Miller’s rib. Although Blake got credit for the match, he was unable to finish out the tournament. Ryan Kobliska, an athlete who just came out for wrestling this past week, competed in the 145 slot. “Ryan was asked to step up and fill this weight class for us. It took guts to go out there and wrestle in a varsity tournament with as little preparation as he had,” Coach Bjerga said.

The Staples Motley mat men will now have a break until the new year, when they will wrestle in a triangular on Jan. 7.

Wrestling results

Maple River Tournament:

Team standings: 1. New Ulm, 218; 2.Staples Motley, 168; 3. Medford, 145; 4. Martin County West, 99.5; 5. Mankato West, 84; 6. Maple River, 77; 7. Madelia/ Truman-Martin Luther, 75

103: Blake Miller win by disqualifi cation Josh Hendrickson (MW)

112: (3rd) Jordan Heldman bye; Zach Kuhns (MR) maj. dec Heldman; Heldman dec Elliot Jurries (MCW); Heldman win by fall, Isaac Pfeffer (MTL)

119: Tyler Pogreba lost by fall to Henry Thoreson (NU); Pogreba, bye; Austin Jahnz (MTL) fall Pogreba

125: (4th) Brady Killian fall Dustin Nelson (MCW); Ryan Hoffman (NU) fall Killian; Killian fall Jordan Hellie (MW) Dustin Nelson (MCW) dec Killian

130: (3rd) Sam Duberowski bye; win by fall, Tyler Olson (MR)

135: Dylan Kylander, bye; Cole Cihak (NU) fall Kylander

140: (1st) Brandon Flickinger fall Ryan Behne (MCW); dec Hunter Friesen (MW); dec Seth Barkosky (MR)

145: Jordan Dalluge (MW) fall Ryan Kobliska (SM); Kobliska, bye; Eric Ellanson (NU) fall Kobliska

152: (2nd) Jordan Bendson, bye; fall Ben Enz (MW); Brand Keller (MED) dec Bendson

160: (1st) Chandler Trout, bye; fall Tyler Jakes (MW) ; fall Jamie Gleseke (NU)

171: (1st) Dylan Shequen bye; dec Anthony Mathiowetz (NU); fall Scott Schonek (MR)

189: (2nd) Blake Petrich fall Mike Pace (MTL); fall Nick Dorschner (MCW); Reid Balzer (MED) dec. Petrich

215: (2nd) Ryan Detloff, bye; fall Cam Hanson (MCW); Jake Schmidt (NU) dec. Detloff

285: (4th) David DeYonge, bye; Pat Brinkman (NU) fall DeYonge; bye;