—Messenger photo by Britt Kudla Fort Dodge’s Kane Butrick takes on Mason Hedrick Thursday in the Dodger gym. Butrick earned the fall. For more photos, visit CU at messengernews.net.

The Fort Dodge wrestling team received an early-season test up-and-down the lineup here Thursday night.

Southeast Polk, who has staged some incredible battles with the Dodgers over the past few years, earned a 56-16 victory inside the FDSH gym.

Max Bishop, Kane Butrick and Ben Egli each earned wins for Fort Dodge, who was making its season debut ahead of competing Friday and Saturday in Coralville at the Dan Gable Donnybrook.

“We are going to learn a lot about our team here between this dual and this weekend,” FDSH head coach Bobby Thompson said. “But that is what this part of the season is for. We’ve had a lot of practice time here and the kids are anxious to get back on the mat after wrestling Southeast Polk.”

The Rams, ranked third in Class 3A, picked up matches from Carter Pearson, Nate Jesuroga, Cooper Hanson, Andon Trout, Jack Lewis, Joel Jesuroga, Carson Martinson, Mike Slade, Andrew Reed, Moses Zoaryan and Cooper Martinson.

Nate Jesuroga, the top-ranked 120-pounder, won the bronze medal earlier this year at the world championships in freestyle. The junior has committed to wrestle for the University of Iowa.

He had one of a handful of falls for Southeast Polk, pinning Koy Davidson in four minutes. Lewis, Joel Jesuroga, Carson Martinson, Slade and Cooper Martinson also had pins, while Trout won by technical fall and Hanson major decision.

Reed and Zoaryan each had forfeits and Pearson started the match off with a 7-4 decision over Dru Ayala at 106 pounds.

“Wrestling hard and wrestling smart,” Thompson said. “Those are two things we can control at this point in the season. We aren’t where we want to be, but not many teams are outside of Southeast Polk, and I’m sure they will be improved by the time state rolls around.”

Bishop scored a fall in 48 seconds over Thong Phan at 113 pounds with Butrick following up at 120 with a pin of Mason Hedrick in 4:58.

Egli had a 12-2 major decision at 182 pounds over Antonio Loving.

“Max showed what he is capable of, and so didn’t Kane,” Thompson said. “Ben wrestled hard and had a good match as well.”

Fort Dodge will be joined by the top teams from around the midwest on Friday at the Xtreme Arena. Ankeny, Bettendorf, East Marshall, Hampton-Dumont/CAL, Iowa City High, Iowa City West, Linn-Mar, North Scott, Waterloo Columbus, Waukee, Waukee Northwest and Waverly-Shell Rock are among the Iowa teams along with Apple Valley and several Illinois schools.

“We go to these events to test ourselves,” Thompson said. “I know we’ll have a lot of growth as a collective team over these next two days of wrestling.”