Truth can, indeed, be stranger than fiction.

Bismarck 140-pounder Trevor Johnson could have been expected to reach the finals of the Rotary Wrestling Tournament. After all, he won the tournament last season at 130.

He could even have imagined the Demons running off five straight semifinal wins. But having a 56.5-point lead on Rapid City Stevens going into today's session is a bit over the top.

"We finished behind Rapid City Stevens the first two tournaments of the year," Johnson said, harking back to the Mandan Lions and Rapid City Invitational. "Being this far ahead of them surprises me.They're a tough team."

The defending champion Demons quickly broke away from the pack in its quest for a 20th Rotary title. BHS put five men in the finals en route to 183 points. And the Demons have some firepower available in today's wrestlebacks, too, with six men in the consolation bracket.

Stevens, like Bismarck a defending state champion, tallied 126.5 first-day points and advanced two men to the finals. The Raiders have eight wrestleback entries going into today's action at the Civic Center.

Brian Moser, the Stevens coach, concedes Bismarck put his Raiders in a deep hole with its 5-for-7 semifinal showing. Still, he isn't quite ready to throw in the towel.

"That's a lot of ground to make up. I don't know if we have enough matches," Moser said. "We've got to dig in and get as many third places as we can. … We've got to be picture perfect (in the wrestlebacks), there's no doubt about it."

The battle for third in the team standings promises to be interesting with Fargo South (111), Miles City, Mont., Custer County (105), Aberdeen, S.D. (104) and Frazee, Minn., (95) all jammed around the 100-point mark.

Bismarck's finalists are Ryan Blees at 103, Drew Spaulding at 130, Joe Schumacher at 135, Johnson at 140 and Joe Latham at 160.

Custer County is next in line with three finalists -Kylan Zumpf at 112, Derick Singleton at 125 and Casey Makor at 130.

Napoleon boasts two finalists.

Aside from the five BHS finalists, the only Bismarck-Mandan wrestler shooting for a title today is St.Mary's 125-pounder BrockKrumm.

Both returning two-time Rotary champions - Zumpf and Stevens 160-pounder Kris Klapprodt, will wrestle for championships tonight.

Five other defending champions, Johnson among them, also advanced to today's 2 p.m. finals. South's Eric Forde is in the 112-pound finals and Jarrett Jensen of Stevens advanced at 152. Scott Schiller of West Fargo will meet Beau Melby of Sidney in a battle of defending champions at 189.

David Vetter of St. Mary's, who won last year at 160, dropped a 5-3 overtime decision to Latham in Friday's 160-pound semifinals.

Only four unbeatens will battle for Rotary titles tonight. Forde stands 24-0 at 112, Casey Makor of Custer County is 14-0 at 130, DamonWeigel of Napoleon is 15-0 at 171 and PaytonDeCoteau of Turtle Mountain takes an 18-0 mark into the 215-pound final.

Although Bismarck put itself in excellent position to repeat, Johnson said the Demons can't let up.

"We can't relax too much. We've got some guys who have got to bust their butts to come back for third place," Johnson said.

Only two top-seeded wrestlers were derailed. Rapid City Central's James Wilson was upended by unseeded Jake Hoffart of Minot in the second round at 145 and top-seeded Alex Granfor of Bismarck was pinned by Valley City's Alex Andel in the 285-pound semifinals. Andel was seeded fourth.

Today's action is 10 a.m.