Champs again For the second weekend in a row, the Cards returned with the first place trophy from a wrestling tournament. David DeYonge holds the team trophy from the Kimball tournament held Saturday, Jan. 16. (Submitted photo) The Cardinal wrestlers had an action-packed week, winning a dual meet against Bertha-Hewitt/ Verndale and the title in the Kimball eight team dual meet tournament.

The mat men from Staples Motley on Saturday won their second tourna- ment in two weeks with two very close victories.

The match at Bertha ended with the Cards winning 43-24. “Our performance wasn’t exactly spectacular,” Staples Motley Coach Dan Bjerga said. “BHV did a very good job controlling our hands from the bottom, and as a result, we were not able to get back points and pin our opponents.”

Jordan Bendson got a pin and Blake Petrich had a challenging match against the BHV senior captain Amos Schmidt, who is currently ranked eighth in the state. “He was just one takedown short of winning the match. He fought hard for six minutes but came up short 8-6,” Bjerga said.

First place team The Cardinal wrestling team claimed first place Saturday,Jan. 9 at the Fertile- Beltrami tournament, with three champs. They were Jordan Bendson (from right) at 160 pounds, Dylan Shequen at 171 and Taylor Bendson at 145. Also in the front row are Tyler Pogreba, left, and Jordan Heldman. Second row, from left, are Blake Miller, Dylan Kylander, Sam Duberowski and Tyler Holub. In back are, from left, Brandon Flickinger, Blake Petrich, David DeYonge, Brent Lisson and Ryan Detloff. Five wrestlers finished in second place. (Submitted photo) Saturday at Kimball, the Cardinals, competed in the eight team Kimball dual meet, getting three more team wins and the trophy.

The first dual had the Staples Motley boys up against Glencoe. The Panthers forfeited eight matches so the boys actually only wrestled six matches and they won five, all by fall. The final score was 78-3. Jordan Bendson, Chandler Trout, Dylan Shequen, Blake Petrich and David DeYonge all ended their matches with pins.

The semi-finals, matched the Cards with a tough team from Eden Valley-Watkins. The Eagles had a record of 8-2, but the Cards won by just one point 30-29. The outcome of the meet was on the line when the last wrestler, David DeYonge went out to the mat. DeYonge put forth a great effort and won a close match 3-2, clinching the team’s position in the championship finals.

Also in the finals was the undefeated Kimball Cubs, whose record was 11-0. The Cardinals handed them their first loss of the season with a 32-31 triumph. Five Cardinals were undefeated for the day: Jordan Heldman, Jordan Bendson, Chandler Trout, Dylan Shequen and David DeYonge.

“These were two of the most exciting matches that

I have experienced in a long

time,” Coach Bjerga said. “These two wins were an

overall team effort. Even those wrestlers who did not win their match put forth a tremendous effort to keep their opponent from scoring any bonus points for their team.”

“I have to give David DeYonge a lot of credit. David knew if he didn’t win, the team didn’t win. He handled the pressure very well, he came out and wrestled better than he had all year. He was aggressive but yet always in control and simply wrestled some very smart matches.”

The boys have less than a month left until Section 8AA action begins on Feb. 20. They will see nine more meets in that time. This week they will have a dual against Wadena- Deer Creek on Tuesday, another against Barnesville on Thursday and the Don Dravis Invitational on Saturday, all in the Staples Motley gym.