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Five Dragons advance

By John RittenhouseFive Adrian High School athletes will be pulling double duty when the Minnesota State Class AA Wrestling Championships begin today at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.One week ago, Adrian locked up its third straight state tournament berth as a team. Over the weekend, five more members of the squad earned the right to compete individually based on their performances in the Section 3AA Individual Tournament staged in Redwood Falls Friday and Saturday.Seniors Brandon Bullerman and Cody Reverts captured section titles at the 135- and 215-pound weight classes to advance to state individually.Seventh-grader Brock Bullerman and juniors Tyler Wagner and Will Lutmer placed second at 103, 171 and 275 respectively to gain individual berths in the state classic."We had a pretty good weekend," said AHS coach Gregg Nelson."We had 11 of 14 guys make the semifinals on Friday, and we had 11 guys place fourth or better overall. As far as taking five individuals to state, I’ll take that every year."Brandon Bullerman, who won four straight matches to up his season record to 41-2, won his first three bouts of the individual event with pins. He disposed of Fulda-Murray County Central’s Cory Sandhurst in 2:49, Montevideo’s Chris Tastad in 3:46 and Windom-Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin’s Rueben Silvas in 57 seconds to reach the finals at 135.Bullerman completed his title run by securing an 11-2 major decision victory over Pipestone’s Taylor Evans.Reverts posted three consecutive wins and improved his season record to 35-3 while winning the crown at 215.Pins over Montevideo’s Collin Kruger (56 seconds) and F-MCC’s Will Steinmetz (1:35) sent Reverts to the finals, where he saddled Worthington’s Bryant Schroeder with a 14-4 major decision setback.Wagner went 3-1 to place second at 171 in Redwood Falls, where his record improved to 29-10.He recorded pins against Worthington’s Nate Steffl (1:25) and Luverne’s Dana Beyenhof (1:03) before posting a 12-2 major decision victory over Red Rock Central-Westbrook-Walnut Grove’s Joe Pfarr in the semifinals.Tracy-Milroy-Balaton’s Paul Carlson topped Wagner 5-2 in the championship match.Brock Bullerman and Lutmer had to win true second-place matches to punch their tickets to the state tournament.Bullerman bested RRC-W-WG’s Jordan Vollmar by technical fall and nipped T-M-B’s Zach Campbell before dropping a 1-0 decision to W-ML-B-O’s Josh Falk in the 103-pound championship match.Bullerman defeated Marshall’s Nate Zienstra 7-4 in the true second-place match.Lutmer advanced to the finals at heavyweight by pinning Montevideo’s Pat Gerdes in 55 seconds and nipping Pipestone’s John Lentz 3-2.After falling 4-0 to F-MCC’s Andy Witzel in the title tilt, Lutmer edged Marshall’s Blake Nath 2-1 in the true second-place showdown.Brock Bullerman and Lutmer will take respective 21-18 and 30-5 records to the state tournament. AHS is scheduled to compete as team at 10 a.m. today, with the individual competition beginning at 5:30 p.m.Adrian’s Andy Heitkamp (140), Zach Reker (135) and Nate Engelkes (189) all placed third at the section event with 3-1 records. Stephen Loosbrock (112), Matt Gades (125) and Tony Thier (130) went 2-2 and placed fourth. Clint Metz went 2-2 and placed fifth at 160, Luke Tiesler went 2-3 and placed sixth at 119 and Shea Klooster went 1-2 without placing at 152.

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