BISMARCK, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The Express Train reached its final destination of the regular season, with 33 of our wrestlers competing at the NDUSA Wrestling Youth Tournament this weekend. The Train was rolling coal all season long, and came in to the station carrying some hardware. It was a long, hard, fun, and successful weekend in Bismarck.
The girls started the tournament off, and brought some serious heat, finishing in 2nd place for team points on the 1st day. The girls were anchored by a few of our HS Girls Deegan, Emma, Hope, Gracie and Hailey, each racking up some serious team points. Our 5th grade girls showed true grit, with all 5 of them placing, earning it every step of the way.
The boys followed up on Saturday, with the older boys anchored by Carter and Wyatt, helping the boys secure some more team points, but falling just out of the top 10. Our sixth grade boys showed grit, with Nathaniel placing 5th, and Conley coming up just short of placing by 1 match. Our younger kids, boys and girls, showed some serious promise. Many of the brackets had 30 kids in them, and made for a long and tough day for many of our kids, but they rose to the challenge. It was a great weekend of competition, wins and loses, but mostly fun, team building, seeing what they were mad of, and a train full of pride.
The Express Train isn’t staying put for long. We have kids wrestling all over the Midwest either at Black Hills Nationals, Midwest Duals, and the Heartland Duals as part of Team North Dakota the next couple of weeks, along with Freestyle and Greco Roman practices starting soon.
Results from the North Dakota Youth Tournament in Bismarck on Friday the 27th and Saturday the 28th of March, 2026.
Trinity Ryan – State Champ
Deegan Kirschenmann – State Champ
Hope Sjostrom – State Champ
Olivia Ford – State Champ
Carter Coghlan – True 2nd
Gracie Heitzmann – True 2nd
Emma Trapp – True 2nd
Hailey Ford – True 2nd
Alyx Grafing – True 2nd
Sandy Ford – 2nd
Sierrah Duffy – 3rd
Kathryn Maresh – 4th
Wyatt Maresh – 4th
Vera Volk – 4th
Vayla Volk – 5th
Charlee Coghlan – 5th
Nathaniel Russell – 5th
Olivia Dockter – DNP
Piper Dockter – DNP
Conley Bulow – DNP
Faith Hopson – DNP
Tony Wadeson – DNP
Chance Ronsberg – DNP
Saywer Krueger – DNP
Alan Kleymann – DNP
Gable Hanson – DNP
Tyson Broten – DNP
Vander Volk – DNP
Holt Gubrud – DNP
Jaxon Carow – DNP
Jonathan Ryan – DNP
Rekker Kirschenmann – DNP
Winston Hendrickson – DNP
Express was Coached this weekend by Matt Maresh, Tj Hansen, Dustin Krueger, Ryan Coghlan, Tyler Volk, Drew Dockter, Chris Grafing, Aaron Bulow, Deegan Kirschenmann, Luke Trapp, Megan Grafing, and Dakota and Hope Hopson.
Coaches in the room coaching our wrestlers throughout the year are Brandon Larson, Alex Andel, Nick Thornton, Caleb Johnson, Tim Miller, Aaron Larson, Jax Gums, Casey Bucholz, Taya Lura, Cole Henderson, Amy Whitbeck, and Zach Revier.
