BLOOMINGTON – Marmion's wrestlers made school history Saturday at U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

For the first time, the Cadets took home a trophy from the IHSA dual team state finals, finishing in second place in Class 3A.

Marmion (26-3) lost to Sandburg, 38-17, in the state championship match. Junior Johnny Jimenez went 3-0 on the day, winning by fall, technical fall and major decision.

"It feels awesome. We're really proud of ourselves, although we didn't take first, which we wanted," Jimenez said. "But we really worked hard this season. We're proud of what we did."

Marmion advanced to the final with a 33-16 win against Lincoln-Way Central in the semis, with Jimenez  the lone Cadet to win by fall at 126 pounds. Dylan Duncan (106), George Fisher (138) and Cody Snodgrass (195) won by major decision.

The Cadets got a 39-14 win over Minooka in the quarterfinals to guarantee themselves a trophy. Duncan (106 pounds) and Josh Meyers (170) won by fall for Marmion.

"We were confident. We were planning on going to the finals," said Jimenez, a St. Charles resident who won an individual title at 120 last week. "Each wrestler was really confident with how they were going to wrestle [in the first two rounds]. Not necessarily taking the pedal off, but the finals match is what we were mainly focusing on."

Jimenez said the school's first state trophy is a big step for the Cadets program. The school advanced to state in 2010 but didn't make it past the quarterfinals.

"A lot of people are going to see that now we're really growing as a program, doing a lot better. Hopefully get a lot more kids," Jimenez said. "We're losing a pretty tough senior class. It should be exciting to see how Marmion ends up, hopefully getting a lot better than we are now."