The Waterloo High School wrestlers took part in the Lincoln Tournament over the holiday break — the first time they have ever competed in this event — and came home with a fifth place finish out of 24 schools.

The Waterloo grapplers outperformed some big-time local schools, including Highland, Mascoutah, Jerseyville and Belleville East, and also some upstate schools like Rochester, Tinley Park and Jacksonville. Waterloo was as high as first place at one time before eventually falling to fifth with 129 team points — a mere 11 points back of Carbondale.

Bloomington took home the tournament crown with a team score of 170.

Of the 12 wrestlers Waterloo took to the match, nine of them placed.

Paul Stewart, who recently broke the school record for wins, was the highest placing wrestler for the Bulldogs with a third place showing in the 128-pound class. He lost his semifinal match to the eventual winner of that weight class.

“We did a good job of getting team points by getting pins and also by having wrestlers advancing to more matches,” WHS wrestling coach Pat Stewart said. “That we can take home a fifth place finish without having a kid win a class is good. We got a lot of team points.

Among those placing for Waterloo were Corey Cissell (120 pounds) and Kory Scheafer (182 pounds), who each took home fifth place finishes.

Cody Cissel (126 pounds), Mack Mundy (145 pounds), Kerstan Panzau (170 pounds) and Kory Johnson (195 pounds) all took home sixth place finishes. Panzau lost a tough 15-13 battle that would have put him into a match for third place in the tournament.

Dylan Siebenberger (152 pounds), who was filling in for an injured Austin Stewart, took home an eighth place finish, as did Zach George (220 pounds).

Waterloo currently has a 10-3 match record.

“I’m very pleased with what we did in this tournament,”Stewart said. “The kids wrestled very well. We just need to work on a few small things and we will be good. I’m hoping we can get to 17 match wins again like last year… or maybe better.”