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BATTLE CREEK — The Cedar Catholic wrestling program was just coming off its first tournament title when they took on the reigning Class C State Champions in a dual meet Thursday on the reigning champs’ home mat.
The Trojans dropped the dual match to Battle Creek, 57-20, but the final tally does not indicate the progress the team and its coach, Justin Bartling, has made the last couple of years.
Take into account, Cedar Catholic was short three weight classes from filling an entire team for the dual which put the Braves up 18-0 from the start.
Also take into account, Battle Creek had 10 individual qualifiers for last year’s state meet and seven of those qualifiers brought back some state hardware.
Add in the fact that a couple of Cedar’s most decorated wrestlers were wrestling a couple of the Braves’ most decorated wrestlers and that all made for a very entertaining hour and a half of high school wrestling.
The Trojans won five matches in the dual led by Brady Hochstein and Maverick Heine.
Hochstein, who is state-rated as an individual was matched up against Casey Schnebel, who also entered the match rated in the state.
It took Hochstein a little over one minute to pin Schnebel and gather in six points for the Trojans’ cause.
Heine had the daunting task of taking on a returning state champion in Ryan Stusse, Jr.
The pair wrestled to a 0-0 tie after the first period then Stusse got away from Heine for an escape to make it 1-0.
Heine got away in the third period then took Stusse down for a 3-1 lead. When the clock started winding down, Heine let Stusse go to avoid a 2-point reversal and bled the clock to grab the 3-2 upset win.
Other Trojan wrestlers with big wins in the meet were Braeden Kleinschmit, who earned a technical fall over Noah Mahlin, 16-0 at the 2:39 mark of the match. Easton Hochstein pinned Devin Hassler of Battle Creek in just 52 seconds. Ty Opfer got a major decision over Nick Kreikemeier, 16-3. “We are adjusting to our role as being the ‘hunted’ instead of the ‘hunter,’ we aren’t sneaking up on anyone this year, they know we have some good wrestlers,” Bartling said. “It is great for us to get matches with the best. We are shooting to be as good as Battle Creek, now we know we’ve got some work to do, but we certainly held our own.” The Lady Trojans, although just a team of two, are looking to make some noise of their own on the mat. The wrestlers were supposed to be in action on Saturday in Stanton, as well. That meet was cancelled due to weather, however. Both teams will be in action at the Pierce Invitational with the boys taking the mats Dec. 20 and the girls taking over on Dec. 21. Both tournaments begin wrestling at 9:30 a.m.
