ABOVE: Martin County's Pierce Rohman silences the crowd after a win during the Class AA State Individual Wrestling Tournament Saturday at the Xcel Energy Center. Photo by Ari Selvey/ New Ulm Jorunal.

ST. PAUL – After falling to Bennett Kujawa of Becker on Friday in the first round of the State Individual Wrestling Tournament, the Martin County Red Bulls’ Pierce Rohman knew he would have to shake off the nerves in a hurry if he wanted to see the podium.

Rohman did not have to wait long to chase down redemption either as he claimed a Class AA third-place medal at 133 pounds by beating Kujawa on Saturday in a rematch.

Rohman fell in the championship round to Kujawa via decision 7-3, but Rohman won his consolation bout to stay alive in the tournament, defeating Kadin Martin of Grand Rapids via decision 6-2.

Rohman needed to win two more matches after that in order to get to the third-place match and he did just that, defeating Watertown Mayer-Mayer Lutheran’s Sully Marx by a 5-2 decision and Totino-Grace’s Jackson Refsnider by an 11-6 decision to move on to a rematch with Kujawa.

In the match for third place, Rohman locked in a 9-2 decision win over Kujawa to take home the bronze medal.

“I was just able to take advantage,” said Rohman. “He was tired, he was out of it a bit after he lost his semifinals, but he wrestled a lot of matches and faced a lot of good people and he was physically and mentally not in it, and I just took advantage of that.”

After the match, Rohman had a bit of fun with the crowd.

“I was just going out there to have fun and wrestle,” said Rohman. “I was pretty pumped to get my rematch against him. Yeah, I don’t know. Their crowd was getting rowdy and they’re booing, not so much at me, but the refs, and then I just kind of, I don’t know, pointed at them and shushed. Just got to let them know.”

Red Bulls head coach Adam Williamson said he was happy with how Rohman used his motivation to finish the tournament by taking out the top two seeds at his weight class.

“Pierce placing third was outstanding, but, you know, he was a little disappointed in his seeding and kind of thought that was a little disrespectful to him,” Williamson said. “But he took that as motivation to want to beat those guys seeded and ranked ahead of him. And for him to take out the number two seed and then number one seed at the end for that third-place match was pretty awesome.”

The Red Bulls also saw Torrey Paplow and Maddex Faber in on the state action.

Paplow led the Red Bulls Friday with a pair of wins at 145 pounds, winning his first-round match against St. Paul Johnson’s Gabriel Park via 16-1 tech fall. Paplow fell to Landen Kujawa by tech fall 23-7 before claiming a tech-fall victory over Landon Bizal. Paplow finished his time at state with a close 11-9 loss to Owen Friedrich of Kasson-Mantorville.

Faber, wrestling at 172 pounds, fell to Becker’s Owen Angell in the first round by pin in 3:29. Still, Faber won his consolation match over Wilson Nordquist of Zumbrota-Mazeppa by a 10-9 decision. On Saturday, Faber fell to Wyatt Pollard of New Ulm Area by decision 4-3.

“The boys were excited for it,” said Williamson. “They all found some success there. For Maddex, being his first trip, was outstanding. He found his way to a big win and got to the second day. Even in the couple of losses he took, they were very close matches against some really good wrestlers, so he left his state experience really motivated.”