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OMAHA — A historic Cedar Catholic wrestling season ended with an emphatic exclamation point last weekend.
Five Trojans earned State medals in their individual brackets and the team finished a best-ever seventh place out of 56 teams at the Class C finals, scoring a school-record 71 points.
It was the team’s first Top 10 wrestling finish.
“What a fun and crazy ride to end what will go down as one of the best years in Cedar Catholic wrestling history,” Cedar Catholic head coach Justin Bartling said. “Overall, I thought the team did an amazing job all weekend. Not only did we win lots of matches and bring home hardwar, but the overall grit and extra effort that they gave all weekend was something to really be proud of.
Maverick Heine put together a 5-1 record en route to a third-place finish at State.
He picked up a 7-0 win over Minden senior Logan Choquette in his first match of the tourney. He then dropped a 10-5 decision to eventual state champion Ayden Wintz of Battle Creek in the quarterfinals. Heine then worked his way through the wrestlebacks, picking up a second-period pin against Valentine’s Louden Grooms and decisions over Cody Barton of Malcolm and Gavin Cheek of Mitchell before facing off against Choquette again in the third-place match.
He earned a 3-0 decision over the Minden senior to claim the bronze to end his sophomore season with a 44-4 record.
Bodie Hochstein (126) also wrestled in the third-place match, earning a 6-0 decision over Battle Creek’s Ashton Kuchar to claim the bronze medal, wrapping up a 45-2 freshman season in the process.
He earned his way into the match by pinning Zachary Burkey of Doniphan-Trumbull late in the first period to advance to the quarterfinals.
He then dropped a heart-breaker in the quarterfinals to Devin Nuttelman of Cross County/Osceola, losing in a tie-breaker to the eventual state runner-up.
Hochstein worked his way through the wrestlebacks with a 7-0 win over Keaton Kloke of David City and a 9-0 major decision over Cole Spahr of Tri County to advance to the consolation semifinals against Minden’s Cade Harsin. He defeated Harsin 7-1 to advance to the third-place match.
Easton Hochstein started his tournament off with a third-period pin over Eli Streff of Pierce. He then earned a 6-3 decision over Ethan Elliott of Hershey in the quarterfinals to assure himself of a State medal.
He came up two points shy of making the gold medal match by falling 6-4 to Boone Central’s Carson Wood in the semifinals.
He then advanced to the third-place match with a 3-1 consolation semifinal win over Mason Nitz of Elkhorn Valley.
Minden’s Koltdyn Heath ended his win streak by handing him a 10-0 setback in the third-place match.
Easton Hochstein ended his freshman campaign with a 46-3 season record and a fourth-place State medal.
Braeden Kleinschmit (138) finished his season with a 37-7 record after finishing in sixth place at State.
Kleinschmit got off to a great start as he topped David City’s Braden Johnson 6-5 in their first-round match. He then edged Isaac Eckert of Elkhorn Valley, 3-2, in the quarterfinals. He suffered his first tournament loss when O’Neill’s John Alden flipped him over for a second-period pin. Kleinschmit lost his next two matches by decisions and had to settle for the sixth-place medal.
Broken Bow’s William Moninger out-lasted Brady Hochstein 2-1 in a tight first-round match sending the Cedar sophomore to the wrestlebacks early.
He then picked up a first-period pin over Michael McFarland of Elkhorn Valley, before battling Yutan’s Jesse Kult down to the wire, eventually winning 4-3 in a tie-breaker.
Hochsteins’ next match resulted in a third-period pin over Tieran Cox of Syracuse.
Wyatt Olberding of Falls City defeated Hochstein to send him to the fifth-place match. In the fifth-place match, Kale Taubenheim of Amherst claimed a 4-0 decision over Hochstein.
Hochstein ended his sophomore season with a 37-9 record.
Hunter Kuchta (144) and Kale Korth (175) did not medal as was the case with Madison Kuchta (190) the lone Lady Trojan.
The weekend was filled with great wrestling and plenty of emotion, Coach Bartling said.
“The biggest high all weekend was Friday night — the blood round. You have to win that night to medal,” Bartling said. “We rolled off five wins and were guaranteed five medals, while also upsetting some top guys. That was truly incredible and fun.” The weekend was so historic that Bartling had trouble finding any negatives to talk about.
“To be honest, our only low all weekend was losing really tight matches at the end that kept us out of the semifinals and medals,” he said.
“Every wrestler on the team won and lost a match in the final few seconds.
We are really young, and those little things will be one of the biggest things we grow from going into next year.
“This group of young boys competed well all weekend and I could not be prouder of them.”
The Trojans expect to return six of their boys State qualifiers and five of them were sophomores and freshmen, which only behooves of a bright future for this team.
Korth was a senior on the squad.
“We will build off of this run and go into the offseason looking to get stronger and improve on some of our technique,” Bartling said. “With this group coming back, I really believe that we will be winning more team titles and will be in contention for a top-three finish at State next year.”
Class C team scoring
Battle Creek 127, Broken Bow 98, O’Neill 86.5, Crofton/Bloomfield 81, Minden 80, St. Paul 72, Cedar Catholic 71, David City 67, Wilber-Clatonia 62, Central City 58, Chase County 57, Doniphan-Trumbull 56, Amherst 55.5, Fillmore Central 55.5, Wahoo Neumann 42, Mitchell 41, Syracuse 41, Falls City 37, Elkhorn Valley 34, Pierce 33, Valentine 29, Chadron 28.5, Boone Central 27, Logan View 26, Malcolm 22, Oakland-Craig 21, Cross County/Osceola 20, Hi-Line 19, Yutan 19, Thayer Central 18, Wood River 18, Hershey 14, Johnson County 14, Kearney Catholic 13, Gibbon 12, Superior 12, Madison 11, Tri County 11, Gordon-Rushville 10, Milford 10, Raymond Central 9.5, Clarkson-Leigh 5, Columbus Scotus 5, Tekamah-Herman 5, North Bend 4, Red Cloud/Blue Hill 3.5, Arlington 3, Centura 3, Conestoga 3, Gothenburg 3, Norfolk Catholic 2.5, Louisville 1, Exeter- Milligan-Friend 0, Ord 0, Tri County 0, West Point-Beemer 0.
