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Four Cedar wrestlers earn District titles; six earn trip to Omaha
TEKAMAH — The Cedar Catholic wrestling team was a whisker away from yet another program first Saturday.
Cedar finished the C2 District meet with 164 points to finish the day just 2.5 points shy of the District title.
“Going in, I thought we had a great shot at a District title,” Cedar Catholic coach, Justin Bartling, said. “We only lost by 2.5 points, which means if we could have won only one more match, we would have won that championship.”
Despite falling a little short of a season goal, the Trojan wrestlers had plenty to celebrate Saturday.
Cedar had a school-record six state qualifiers — seven when you count Evie Freeman, who qualified for the girls team last week. Another school record was set when the Trojans claimed four seperate District titles.
Two Cedar wrestlers, Easton Hochstein and Brady Hochstein, also etched their names into the school record books by finishing the regular season with undefeated records.
The Cedar wrestling team, which is celebrating its 20th year of competition this season, still has some lofty goals to attain — and Coach Bartling said they are very attainable.
All four of the District champs have a legitimate shot at taking home a state title from this week’s State Tournament in Omaha. This would be the first State gold medal in school history.
Freeman also advanced to State, and could also find herself on the top step at State. She competed Tuesday in Omaha. Girls State Tournament winners’ bracket finals will be held in Omaha Wednesday.
The boys State Tournament then begins on Thursday. “All five returning qualifiers and Evie have an amazing opportunity and brackets that set up in our favor,” Bartling said. “I believe if we bring our ‘A’ game we could definitely have six state finalists.”
Cedar’s six state qualifiers all took different paths to State.
Freshman Grady Lammers was one of the biggest surprises of the day.
“Our MVP award this week definitely goes to Grady Lammers,” Coach Bartling said. “He really wrestled his tail off and punched his ticket (to State) as a freshman. That’s awesome.”
Lammers earned a first-period pin over Kellen Knutson of Louisville in first-round action in the 106-pound division at Saturday’s District C2 meet, putting Knutson’s shoulders to the mat with just 40 seconds left in the first period.
Lammers then earned another first-period pin to advance to the semifinals. He pinned West Point Beemer’s Layton Schroeder with 1:01 left in the first period.
He dropped into the wrestle-back round after losing a 16-0 tech fall to Erik Prada, a 46-1 sophomore from Johnson County Central.
Lammers punched his ticket to State by pinning Jackson Schroeder of Bishop Neuman to advance to the thirdplace District C-2 match. He then defeated the West Point wrestler in a rematch with a first-period pin.
Lammers now has 34 wins as a freshman putting him in rare company at Cedar Catholic.
In the 126-pound division, Maverick Heine earned a first-period pin over Tekamah-Herman’s Griffin Ackerman with 37 seconds left in the first period. He did the same thing in his second match, earning a first-period pin over Louisville’s Malin Thiele.
Heine then defeated Keaton Busch, David City, 11-1, in the semifinals before earning the pin win in the 126-pound District championship against Quin Zegers of Milford.
Cedar Catholic senior Braeden Kleinschmit took an undefeated record into the tournament.
He pinned Conestoga’s Gage Rahmeg with just 37 seconds left in the first period in his first-round match in the 132-pound division.
Kleinschmit improved his season record 39-0 as he advanced to the semifinals with a first-period pin over Adam Schroder of Twin River.
Cedar Catholic’s all-time wins leader then earned a 15-5 major decision over Bishop Neumann’s Landon Sund to advance to the title match.
Kleinschmit battled through his toughest match of the season in the title round, eventually falling to once-beaten Hayden Schmit of David City by a 5-0 decision.
Bodie Hochstein breezed through his 138-pound division, earning a first-round bye, then a first-period pin over Louisville’s Jager Barnes before stopping Tekamah-Herman’s Jager Leichliter in a 15-0 first period technical fall. He then earned gold over David City’s Manny Venagas.
Bodie Hochstein made his trip to the top of the medal stand look easy, but the season was far from easy for the sophomore wrestler.
He tore his miniscus during practice before the season even started, and wasn’t sure he would even wrestle a match this year.
“It took a while to adjust, but it’s working out fine. I opted to wrestle through it and wait for surgery until after season,” he said.
He sat out quite a few meets before he felt comfortable enough to get back onto the mat, but he’s adjusted well to the injury.
“Bodie is so technical that he just decided to figure out a little different style of wrestling to cater to his injury,” his mother, Erica Hochstein, said after the District match.
Those adjustments have paid off well as he goes into this week’s State Tournament as the number one seed in his weight class.
Bodie was the first of the three Hochstein brothers to claim District gold.
His twin brother Easton advanced to the title match in the 144-pound division by earning two first-period pins and a second-period pin.
He then battled Milford’s Cooper Rea through three tough rounds before earning the 7-0 decision and the family’s second gold medal of the day.
“I’d say my biggest obstacle was definitely my finals match,” Easton Hochstein said. “The kid was tough and very good on his feet. I definitely needed to be on my ‘A’ game.”
The victory kept Easton undefeated on the season. Keeping his record blemish free when he competes at State won’t be easy, though.
“Getting a medal at state is never easy. This week we’re definitely going to have to push the pace at practice to prepare for state like matches,” he said. “Confidence is also going to be a key factor in the outcome of my matches.”
Brady Hochstein also kept his undefeated season intact with a District title.
He pinned Ponca’s Connor Schamp just 43 seconds into their first-round match in the 165-pound class.
He earned a quick first-period pin over Winnebago’s Jacob Lincoln in his next match and advanced to the District semifinal match against Alex Braniff of Tekamah-Herman. He earned a technical fall in the second period after building a 17-1 score against Braniff. He then earned the gold on a forfeit.
Brady said he knew there would be a lot of talent at this match and knew he had to wrestle his best to win.
“I knew my semifinals match or finals was going to be my toughest match of the day,” he said.
Brady said he felt very prepared for the District competition.
“Throughout the week, we focused on a lot of technique and hard live wrestling in the wrestling room,” he said. “We didn’t change much because what we were doing was working so we relied on good coaching to help us out.”
Hunter Kuchta also wrestled well on the day, but lost in the quarterfinals and in the wrestlebacks to miss out on a trip to state.
Brody Kleinschmit also advanced to the quarterfinals, but lost his next two matches to end his day.
Castin Pinkelman picked up a 7-6 win over Coy Maas of Milford, but lost his other two matches.
Kryptin Collier and Nicholas Coleman also competed at Districts, but both lost their first two matches of the day.
