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HARTINGTON — It’s pretty tough to win a wrestling dual without a full complement of wrestlers, but Cedar Catholic almost managed to do just that Thursday night against one of the best Class C teams in the state.
Defending Class C state champion Battle Creek earned the 43-30 win largely because of five forfeit wins since Cedar didn’t have a wrestler in those particular weight classes.
“If we would have had everyone down to weight — we win that dual,” Cedar Catholic wrestling coach Justin Bartling said.
Cedar won four of the contested bouts Thursday, but gave up 18 points in forfeits to give Battle Creek the win.
“We did not wrestle our best at all but they are the defending champions for a reason,” he said.
Cedar wrestlers Kody Bartling, Hunter Kuchta, Easton Hochstein and Brady Hochstein all collected pins on the night.
Maverick Heine, Kody Bartling, and Brody Kleinschmit all had the crowd on its feet during their matches.
“Kody only won three matches last year and is off to a 5-1 start. He got us six points in a toss up match,” Coach Bartling said.
Brody Kleinschmit’s win was also impressive, Bartling said.
“Brody beat the numberthee ranked wrestler at 175 and kind of dominated the control of the match,” Bartling said.
Defense dominated in Maverick Heine’s 132-pound match with Ashton Kuchar. Kuchar earned a penalty point in the match, but neither wrestler was able to garner a takedown, escape, reverse or backpoints as the match ended with Kuchar winning 1-0.
Bodie Hochstein earned a 9-5 decision over Barrett Koehler.
Bartling said the team has plenty of work to do yet in order to compete with the best, but it is already looking very solid. “We’ve definitely got room to improve but the team looks like a top team again this year,” he said.
In other matches. At 215 Anson Noecker lost to Rillee Sellin by a 14-1 major decision.
Tyan Thompson pinned Cedar’s Blake Bensen at the 1:27 mark of the first period in their 120-pound match.
In the heavyweight class, Conner Heidernan earned a takedown against Sam Wiebelhaus and took control from there eventually earning a first-period pin.
The Cedar Catholic girls wrestling team also competed, but Cedar only has three wrestlers on the team so the outcome was known before the match even started.
Only two matches were actually held in the girls meet as Morgan Kuchta collected a forfeit win.
Cedar’s Evie Freeman took on Battle Creek’s Teela Bleich in the 125-pound division. Freeman earned the takedown, and then collected the pin with 1:14 left in the first period.
Cedar’s Ashlynn Dailey took on Brinkley Last in the 110-pound match. The two battled evenly for most of the first period before Last was able to turn Dailey and earn the pin with 32 seconds left in the opening frame.
