The Waseca Special Olympics basketball teams traveled to St. Thomas University last weekend and took home two second-place trophies and one third-place honor.

Four athletes also won first-place team medals in individual skills competition.

Along with the teams, coaches Terry and Cindy Ruedy, Brianna Westling, Chris Egnia, Jamie Penitco, Jen Williamson, Kelly Sutlief and Kari Awan made the trip to St. Paul.

The basketball portion of the games got started on Friday morning with the individual skills competition. Waseca athletes Guy Bice, Christyn McClure, Jolene Root and Ashley Speckmeier received first-place team medals.

The half-court gold team of Jared, Mitch, Angie, Chase and Jake took second in the I bracket and brought one of the two second-place team medals back to Waseca.

They began the tournament at 2:30 p.m. on Friday with a victory over the Blazing Stars White by a score of 20-14. That win put them in the next game against the Bouncers, who they defeated 14-10 to advance to the championship game against the Lightning and Thunder. Things didn’t go as smoothly, with the local five ending up on the wrong end of a 20-2 score, but the team still brought home the silver.

The half-court blue team of Trent, Blake, Nancy, Mike and Chris rallied to a third-place finish in the O bracket at the games.

The team doubled up their first opponent on Friday, the Rolling Acres, by a score of 20-10. They returned on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and faced a tough Eagles One team that got the better of them (20-14) and put Waseca at a 1-1 record. In their final game, they lost to the eventual champions, the Mighty Gold by a score of 18-10.

The full-court team participated on Friday and Saturday, as well, and won the silver in the L bracket of the tournament.

They lost their first game of the weekend to the eventual champion Rave Mighty Knights by the slimmest of margins, 21-20. That’s a story in itself as the Mighty Knights steamrolled the rest of the competitions, winning their remaining two games by a combined score of 100-37.

After the opening loss, the Waseca team beat the Cobras by a score of 40-10 and then dispatched their final opponent, the Wan Orange, in a low-scoring 23-16 affair to seal up the silver team medals.