The Staples Motley regular wrestling season came to a close this past week. The boys had one dual meet and a dual tournament to finish out the 2010 regular season.

This Saturday the Section 8A team tourn ament begins at Thief River Falls.

Fergus Falls is the top seed, with Perham second in the 12-team field. Fourth seed is the host Thief River Falls team. The individual section tourney will be the following weekend.

Three or four starters were missing from the Cardinal line up this past week, but some younger wrestlers stepped up to the challenge, helping to win three out of the four duals.

February 9, the Cards hit the road and faced Pelican Rapids. The SM wrestlers downed the Vikings 54-18. Five Cardinals put their PR opponent on their back, earning pins, Jordan Heldman, Sam Duberowski, Jordan Bendson, Gavin Kadlec and Blake Petrich.

Five others (Dylan Shequen, David DeYonge, Gage Brown, Blake Miller and Ryan Detloff) won their matches, clinching yet another dual meet win. Coach Dan Bjerga said that the most exciting match of the night was when Dylan Shequen defeated Alex Klovstad 5-3. “Dylan was taken down right away in the first period, but came back and took Klovstad down twice in the second period to go ahead and hung on for the win. There was non-stop action, Dylan had an outstanding performance.”

Last Saturday the Cards competed at the Breckenridge tournament where the the Cards won two of the three matches.Five Cardinals went 3-0 led by Jordan Bendson at 152, who earned his 150th win and is 30-1. Dylan Shequen finishes the regular season 29-4 at 171 and Ryan Detloff is 28-5 at 215.

Blake Petrich, at 189, and heavyweight David DeYonge were also undefeated Cardinals on Saturday.

T

he first match saw the

Cardinals defeat the host Breckenridge Cowboys 59- 16.

They went on to win the second meet, against Browerville/ Eagle Valley 40-30, and then lost to Border West 39-33.

Petrich faced Cowboy Greg Erlandson for the second time this season, and took revenge for an earlier loss by winning the match in overtime, 7-5, Coach Bjerga said. “Blake wrestled very smart and did exactly what he had to do to win.”

Going up against Browerville, Staples Motley started out slow, and the Tigers were ahead 30-7 going into the 152 pound match. Once again the last six guys in the Cardinal lineup won all six matches, with five of the boys winning by fall. This put the final score at 40-30 Cardinals.

With Border West things happened pretty much the same, “Border West has some excellent wrestlers in the lower weights, and combine that with our open weights, we were trailing 39- 0 going into the 152 match. With only six matches to go, it wasn’t possible to win the dual at that point,” Bjerga said. But the top six guys still came out and won all of their matches, five by fall.

This loss was just the second of the season for the Cardinals. Their record for the 2009-2010 season is 19-2.

The Staples Motley boys are the third seed in the Section 8A team tournament. They received a first round bye and will wrestle at 2 p.m. Saturday, against the winner of a first round match between Roseau and Blackduck/Cass Lake.

Wrestling results

Staples Motley 54, Pelican Rapids 18

103: Gage Brown (SM) win by forfeit

112: Blake Miller (SM) won by forfeit

119: Jordan Heldman (SM) fall Josh Klovstad

125: Jesus Romero (PR) dec Brady Killian 13-10

130: Sam Duberowski (SM) fall Jake Hayden 2:41

135: Jim Cossette (PR) win by forfeit

140: Cody Tullar (PR) win by forfeit

145: Cris Bakken (PR) dec Brent Lisson 6-4

152: Jordan Bendson (SM) fall Jed Evenson 1:18

160: Gavin Kadlec (SM) fall Jordan Mohr 1:14

171: Dylan Shequen (SM) dec. Alex Klovstad (PR) 5-3

189: Blake Petrich (SM) fall Stephan Jacobson 0:47

215: Ryan Detloff (SM) win by forfeit

285: David DeYonge (SM) dec. Connor Holt 4-0

Breck tournament Team scores

Staples Motley 59, Breck 16

Staples Motley 40, Browerville 30

Border West 39, Staples Motley 33

Staples Motley individuals

Individuals:

103: Gage Brown 1-0, Blake Miller 1-1

112: Jordan Heldman 1-2 119: Tyler Pogreba 1-2 125: Tyler Holub 1-2 130: Brady Killian 2-1 135: Dylan Kylander 0-3 140: open 145: Brent Lisson 1-2 152: Jordan Bendson 3-0 160: Chandler Trout 2-1 171: Dylan Shequen 3-0 189: Blake Petrich 3-0 215: Ryan Detloff 3-0 Hwt: David DeYonge 3-0