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Eight Hartington wrestlers advance to State Tournament
MADISON — If last weekend’s district wrestling meets proved anything, it’s this: Hartington wrestling is headed back to Omaha in a big way.
Eight local wrestlers punched their tickets to the State Tournament — five from Cedar Catholic and three from Hartington-Newcastle — highlighting one of the best District wrestling outings the town has ever witnessed.
The numbers tell the story.
• Eight state qualifiers — five Trojans and three Wildcats.
• Three Cedar Catholic district champions.
• Two district runner-up finishes from Maverick Heine (Cedar Catholic) and Grady Lammers (HNS).
• Just 2½ points separated Cedar Catholic from a district team title.
Thayer Central won the District C1 team race with 126 points, Boone Central was second with 125, Cedar Catholic finished third with 123.5, Pender was fourth with 120.5 and Valentine rounded out the top five with 119.
Bodie Hochstein (144), Easton Hochstein (150) and Brady Hochstein (165) each claimed district titles for Cedar.
Bodie and Easton both entered as undefeated defending state champions.
“Bodie is 48-0 for a reason, he’s kind of the same song, different day kind of guy,” said Cedar Catholic coach Justin Bartling. “He’s so consistent and so good. To say he’s been wrestling really well would be an understatement. He’s just that good.”
Easton Hochstein won his title at 150 and also remained unbeaten for the year with two pins and a technical fall in the district meet.
“Easton is a lot like Bodie in the fact he’s always good on the mat,” Bartling said. “He’s one pin away from the career program record, he finds ways to keep himself motivated through the season by achieving records.”
Their older brother, senior Brady Hochstein, got some revenge at the district meet in the form of Boone Central’s Daron Dozler.
Dozler had beaten Brady three times this season.
“He was on a mission to beat him in this tournament,” said Bartling. “You could see it in his eyes, he wasn’t going to lose.”
He had fallen a match short of a state title last season and had simply had enough, defeating Dozler, 9-3 in the finals.
“I was very happy for him and it’s a great way to go to state,” the coach said. “It also puts him on the other side of the bracket at state as a district champion.”
Maverick Heine was second and Keyan Wickre also earned a spot at State with a fourthplace showing in Madison.
“Keyan was kind of our dark horse in the district,”said Bartling. “He has been wrestling really well the past couple of weeks and he turned a corner at districts. I can’t wait to see what he does at state.”
Heine, who is trailing Brady Hochstein by just a couple of wins as the all-time winner in Cedar Catholic program history and is a threetime medalist, including a silver last season, dropped a 4-1 decision to Jekkhi Williams from Valentine in the finals to settle for silver at Districts. He had won his first two bouts by pin.
“He’s been wrestling really well as he has his entire career,” said Bartling. “As he always does, I’m sure he’ll do well at state.”
The Trojans may not have enough firepower to compete for a state title in Omaha, but they will certainly be noticed after their impressive run at last year’s state tournament.
“You never know what can happen once you get there,” said Bartling. “Strange things occur in Omaha, we’re really excited to get down there and start wrestling.”
