RAPID CITY - It was quite a weekend for the Schlecht family of Whitewood in Des Moines, Iowa back on March 6-8 as Justin Schlecht picked up his third straight national title while his little brother Stanton lost in his championship match at the NAIA National Tournament at the Tyson Events Center-Gateway Arena.

The pair, wrestling for Dickinson State University, helped the Blue Hawks (107.5) equal their best-ever finish at nationals with a third-place finish.

Lindenwood University (130) won the event with McKendree College (109.5) second.

"I just think of it as one year at a time," said Justin. "It's a different approach every year, you have to take it one match at a time, otherwise you could freeze up and not perform."

Justin pinned McKendree freshman Andrew Sanchez in 4:06 in his final college match. With the win, he garnered the meet's outstanding wrestler award and was also named the National Wrestling Coaches Association NAIA wrestler of the year.

The all-time DSU wins leader went 17-1 at the national tournament with 13 pins.

"It still really hasn't all sunk in," said Justin upon reflecting on his final college match.

"It was an exciting tournament, there were lots of family, friends and fans of the team rooting us on."

"My brother (Stanton) and I have been wrestling since we were kids. All the guys here are family… we are all brothers."

Stanton wrestling at 165 pounds, lost to Robert Davis of Menlo College 10-3 in the finals in what would have been a history-making event.

Stanton was named an All-American as six Blue Hawks in all were so honored.

The NAIA's No. 1-ranked 197-pounder has been busy since leaving Sturgis High School a few years ago.

Schlecht switched majors, was stationed in Iraq for a year-and-half with the South Dakota National Guard 842nd Combat Engineers and was recently married along winning three national titles.

Both boys wrestled on some pretty fair Scooper squads while in high school as Sturgis won the dual title in 2001 and then the team title and dual title in 2002.

"My best finish in a state meet was sixth," said Schlecht. "Coach (Thad) O'Donnell believed in me when others didn't, so it was an easy decision for me to come to DSU."

He will graduate in the fall of 2008 with an art education major and a minor in coaching.

"My plan all along was to teach and coach. Dickinson State has been great for me, it's one of the main focuses here… getting a degree," added Justin.

Justin hopes to student teach in the Black Hills area and then find a job in the area as well.

"It's been a great experience…lots of fun with a great bunch of guys."

Stanton, the younger of the two, echoed his brother's sentiment about the family atmosphere at DSU.

"We had a tough first day at the national meet," said Stanton. Dickinson State was in 11th place after day one. "We showed a lot of heart and battled back."

The pair got the wrestling bug from their dad Kirby while growing up in Whitewood. The two would later travel to Sturgis to attend middle school and high school.

"The AAU program was just starting up and Dad asked us if we would like to give it a shot," said Stanton.

Kirby would later come to the rescue of the program by stepping in as its coach to keep it running.

Stanton wasn't sure upon his high school graduation where he would like to attend college. Again Coach O'Donnell stepped in.

"Coach told me that he didn't care what we did in high school. He was looking for guys who liked competition, had some mental toughness and liked to grind," said the younger Schlecht.

Throw in the fact that his life-long wrestling partner (Justin) was already there didn't hurt either.

With one year left in his career at DSU, Stanton has a little unfinished business.

The Agriculture major with an emphasis in Natural Resources would like to give his folks (Kirby and Kim) one more thing to celebrate.

"They really have enjoyed traveling to our meets. Pretty soon they'll have nothing to do," Stanton said chuckling.

"Oh yeah, I definitely have some payback coming. My last match didn't go the way I wanted, so that gives me something to shoot for."

Besides big brother will be watching.