Three tournaments have yielded three trophies after South Whidbey’s wrestling team took third place at the Cruiser Wrestling Tournament on Dec. 21.

So far this season, the Falcons have finished as a top-three team at the Chief Sealth, Iron Sharpens Iron and now the Cruiser tournaments. South Whidbey’s trophy case could have been a bit more full, however, as the team was competing without a full roster.

The Falcons competed in Eatonville High School’s dual-meet tournament without their 106, 113, 220 and heavyweight wrestlers, giving up easy points to the other five schools.

“If we have any two of those guys, we win this thing,” said Falcon head coach Jim Thompson, explaining that some were academically ineligible and one was injured and one was away on vacation. “Three top-three finishes in a row; I’m really happy.”

South Whidbey scraped through its first three contests, beating Emerald Ridge, Foss and Eatonville by a combined 18 points — equal to three pins.

“We were 3-0 at one point, thinking we were going to walk through this thing,” Thompson said.

None of the meets were decided by more than six points, including South Whidbey’s losses to North Thurston, 36-30, and Sumner, 39-36.

South Whidbey had four wrestlers finish the tournament with 4-1 records. Falcon 152-pound senior Andy Madsen lost his first match of the season in the North Thurston match, but not before adding a few more pins and a technical fall to his resumé.

Hunter Newman, a 132-pound freshman, won two matches.

South Whidbey seniors Tyler Russell, 138 pounds, Kyrell Broyles, 160, and Jose Chavez, 170, each finished with 4-1 records on the day.

“The middle of my lineup again was just beating people up,” Thompson said.

Donnie Sutton, 145 pounds, won three matches and lost two, as did senior 170-pounder Calvin Shimada, who had returned from an illness the week before. In Shimada’s match with North Thurston, Thompson recalled the bout lasting much longer than usual because he suffered a hit that made his nose bleed. No matter how much tissue was used to stop the bleeding, it just kept running, forcing a medical timeout and prolonging the match.

Beck Davis, a senior in the 182-pound division, had a 2-1 record at Eatonville but was held out of the final match because of shoulder and knee injuries.

The Falcons pinned four opponents against Emerald Ridge, five against Foss, two against Eatonville, four against North Thurston, and three against Sumner.

A long break awaits the Falcons now before resuming on-the-mat battles. South Whidbey’s tournament at Chief Sealth in West Seattle, scheduled for Dec. 28, was canceled because a couple of schools dropped out of the eight-team field, and Thompson said he did not plan on booking a meet to replace it.

South Whidbey’s next meet is the King of the Mountain Tournament at Darrington High School on Jan. 4. Thompson said he would rest his wrestlers this week while encouraging them to keep up with school and work on making weight after the school break.