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WINSIDE — The Cedar Catholic wrestling team is still one of the hottest teams in Northeast Nebraska.
Behind a school record 183 points, the Trojans captured the Winside Invitational Tournament last weekend.
Maverick Heine (113 pounds), Bodie Hochstein (126), Easton Hochstein (132), Braeden Kleinschmit (144), Brady Hochstein (150) and Kale Korth (165) all brought home first-place medals while Hunter Kuchta (second, 138), Brody Kleinschmit (third, 126), Ty Opfer (fourth, 132) and Nicholas Coleman (fourth, 190) also recorded top finishes.
Morgan Kuchta (135) and Madison Kuchta (190) both earned silver medals on the girls side of the mat.
“The two girls have shown tremendous improvement over the past few weeks,” Cedar head coach Justin Bartling said. “Madison was able to get revenge against an opponent who previously beat us at the last tournament. Morgan really was hitting her stride and was able to make her first ever finals, in which we were in an even match all the way until the very end.
Both the boys and girls squads looked great, Coach Bartling said.
“Overall, I am really pleased with the effort of both teams,” he said. “We continued to improve our ground game and it really showed these past two weeks.”
Easton Hochstein is one of the core of younger wrestlers including twin Bodie and sophomores Heine and older brother Brady.
“Me and my brothers just have a lot of experience because we’ve been wrestling since we were in kindergarten so we just know a lot of stuff,” Easton said. “All our parents started us at such a young age, and we’ve just had all of our other teammates for so long just practicing and working together.”
He also admits wrestling at Cedar is becoming a big deal.
“Having us come in is starting to get wrestling the recognition that it should have,” Easton said. “We just haven’t really had a wrestling team in the past years that was super good like it is this year,” he said. “I think a lot of kids just watch some of us wrestle all the time, and it just, I don’t know, kind of inspires them.”
Easton and others started by wrestling in Crofton and now the sport is really taking hold here and he believes the future is mouthwatering.
“There’s a bunch of young kids – about 50 kids going out and when I’m there at practice and just helping them out, I see a lot of potential,” Easton said. “Looking back, I feel like there’s a bunch of kids on our team who are just like me and like my brothers and teammates. If we can coach them up and get them to learn and develop, they could be excellent wrestlers.
“All the young kids wrestle really aggressive and they actually know their moves a lot more than I think I did when I was young.”
Bartling said the biggest challenge out of the break was keeping the mental focus after the distraction of inaction.
“These kids continue to show me that they have goals and are willing to do what it takes in practice to get those accomplished,” Bartling said.
Braeden Kleinschmit added three wins to his career total of 94 and is moving in on 100. Breaking the school record of 123 (Kerby Hochstein, Eric Hoesing) is a distinct possibility.
This week the team was secheduled to wrestle Tuesday night in a triangular with Randolph and GACC and Thursday the Trojans host Lyons Decatur and West Holt, followed by the Battle Creek tournament on Saturday.
Winside Invitational
1. Cedar Catholic, 182; 2. Randolph, 108; 3. Osmond, 80; 4. Winside, 76; 5. Millard North JV, 71; 6. Homer, 60; 7. Lyons Decatur, NE, 50; 8. Winnebago, 45; 9. Bancroft- Rosalie, 44; 10. Tri County NE, 44; 11; Ponca, 43; 12. Niobrara-Verdigre, 6.5.
