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STANTON — The Cedar Catholic wrestling program continues to impress early in the season.
Now, they are also making history.
Last week, Madison and Morgan Kuchta competed at the first allgirls wrestling tournament in school history.
“Both girls wrestled really well and were able to overcome a lot of nerves and still keep on competing,” Cedar coach Justin Bartling said.
Both girls finished in second place in their brackets, “which is a solid start to build our foundation for the girls team,” Coach Bartling said.
The boys had a busy week, wrestling three days in a row. First, they took on Battle Creek in Hartington as the Trojans hosted the No. 6 team in Class C.
“We continued our aggressive approach that we had after last week for sure,” Bartling said. “We had some great matches and some youngsters really stepped up,” Bartling said.
Bodie and Easton Hochstein did not let the bright lights of the first dual get to them by picking up some big wins.
“That dual is always super tough but I love how it shows the attitude of our team,” Cedar’s veteran coach said. ”We will take on anyone this season match by match and didn’t shy away from it.”
The wrestlers then took off for the Christian Classic at Guardian Angels on Friday and the boys finished second.
“We were pretty much dominant throughout the day,” Bartling said.
“The final dual against GACC did not go in our favor, but we won six of the nine matchups against them. It stinks when they get so many points against us when we don’t have a wrestler there but that’s how it goes.”
Those forfeits don’t change the fact the boys were on top of their games.
Maverick Heine, Bodie Hochstein, Easton Hochstein, Braeden Kleinschmit, Brady Hochstein and Kale Korth all went undefeated on the day. The local wrestlers wrapped up a busy week at the Stanton Invitational and scored a school record 181 points and had six individual champions. The 17-team Stanton tourney features a lot of very tough teams, so their point total was only good enough for third, though, finishing behind team champion David City and runner-up Plainview. Maverick Heine (113 pounds) pinned his way to the gold while moving his record to 12-1. Bodie Hochstein also won his first high school gold medal and moved to 11-1 overall. Fellow freshman Easton Hochstein remained unbeaten and captured the individual title with a pin in the final. Junior Braeden Kleinschmit also brought home the gold as did Brady Hochstein who saw success moving down a class from 165 to 157. Kale Korth also won his bracket and is now 13-1 giving the kind of leadership the young team needs, Bartling said.
Ty Opfer got a fifth-place medal in his first varsity meet.
“Ty wrestled well in a very even bracket,” Bartling said. “You could see his growth throughout the entire tournament Saturday and finished it with a quick pinfall victory.”
Hunter Kuchta finished sixth “This week our boys showed a tremendous amount of dedication and strength as they had to wrestle three consecutive days,” Bartling said. “That’s really hard to do and these young men did not shy away from anything.
“We have plenty to work on this week as we head into the Christmas season. This team is really fun to watch and the team chemistry is really starting to show.”
Braeden Kleinschmit said that the depth of the program is making things even more exciting for the program.
“Our freshmen are looking really good,” he said. “I think we just have a killer mentality. We go out there and like we’re either going to (win) or we’re gonna die trying. We’re going out there aggressively and our mindset is just better. We know we can win.
“We’re all really close. We’re not like at each other’s throat. We all know our freshmen are really good. It’s more motivating seeing our entire team is getting first place. Watching the entire team beat out ranked guys and win good tournaments and win against good people. It creates more excitement.”
The program will head to the Pierce tournament with the boys starting things on Friday and then the girls wrap things up Saturday.
Stanton Tourney
1. David City, 205; 2. Plainview, 199; 3. Cedar Catholic, 181; 4. Randolph, 95; 5. Madison, 87; 6. Pender, 80; 7. Norfolk Catholic, 74; 8. Wakefield, 69; 9. Stanton, 65; 10. Osmond, 59; 11. Tri County NE, 45; 12. Lincoln Lutheran, 37; 13. Banc roft-Rosalie, 31; 14. Lyons-Decatur, 23; 14. O’Neill St. Marys, 23; 16. Lutheran High NE, 16; 17. Scribner-Snyder, 6.
Christian Classic Dual at West Point Cedar Catholic def. Lutheran High NE 48-9. Cedar Catholic defeated St. Mary`s 45-12. Omaha Roncalli Catholic defeated Lutheran High Northeast 48-12. Cedar def.Omaha Roncalli Catholic 54-18. GACC def. Cedar Catholic 34-33.
Jerri Schmidt | for the Cedar County News
