The Sikeston wrestling team competed in the Affton Tournament and came away with three first place finishes. Front row, from left: Gavilan Bland (first place in 171 division), Robert Madison (first place in 285), Nick De La Rosa (first place in 119 division); back row, DeMandre Steward (second place in 215 division), Jacob Murphy (second place in 112 division) and Dustin Wells (fifth place in 130 division). (Submitted photo) [Click to enlarge]

AFFTON -- The Sikeston wrestling team took home three first-place finishes in the Affton Wrestling Tournament Saturday.

As a team, the Bulldogs finished seventh in the 11-team field that consisted mostly of schools in the St. Louis area.

Gavilan Bland, Robert Madison and Nick De La Rosa all shined in the tournament, each winning their respective weight classes.

Bland (171) and Madison (285) each went 5-0 in the tournament with both winning each match by pin.

De La Rosa (119) was also impressive, going 3-0 in the tournament.

Jacob Murphy (112) went 4-1 and finished second as did Demardre Stewart (215), who finished the tournament 2-1. Dustin Wells (130) also had a good showing, placing fifth.

"I was pleased with our effort," said Sikeston coach Kent Gibbs. "We made several mistakes, but for the most part I thought we wrestled in an aggressive manner, and took the

matches to our opponents. We did show a considerable amount of improvement between our opening matches and this tournament. We need to keep improving every week as our tournament schedule becomes more and more difficult.

"I would like to thank the fans that traveled to St. Louis and supported our team."

Sikeston will be in action tonight at Carbondale for a double dual with Carbondale and Cape Central. They will return to the mats on Saturday at Farmington for the Farmington Duals.