Heine wins first career gold at Pierce Invitational
PIERCE — The returns for the Cedar Catholic High School wrestling program continue to soar and what better time to see a bump than during the holidays?
The Trojans took part in the Pierce tournament last weekend and saw freshman Maverick Heine earn his first gold medal in just his secondever prep event.
Heine won the 113-pound bracket by way of a 4-0 decision over Wayne’s Will Leseberg. Heine got to the final with a bye, quarterfinal pin and a 3-2 win over Kaden Margritz of Gothenburg in the semifinals.
In addition to Heine’s performance, Braeden Kleinschmit finished second at 132 pounds, getting to the final and dropping a major decision to O’Neill’s Joseph Yates.
The Trojan sophomore won his first three matches by pin after a total of 8:33 of wrestling.
Trojan JV wrestler Langston Christensen also provided a highlight with his first career win.
“That is a great feeling given his limited experience,” Cedar Catholic head coach Justin Bartling said. “As a whole, I was really happy with how we all competed.”
Brady Hochstein wrestled up at 145 in his first career meet and started his day off with a win over the fourth seed.
“We were more aggressive and fought hard throughout every match. We saw some definite improvement in all areas,” Bartling said.
Other results included Hochstein finishing 3-2 overall although he did not place despite scoring 8.5 points for the team. The same went for Weston Heine at 182 pounds.
Kale Korth went 2-2 at 170 pounds as did Cole Bensen at 182 pounds and Nick Coleman (195 pounds).
Tavious Pinkelman (126) and Hunter Kuchta (132) also competed for the Trojans.
“We still need to improve in our top game,” Bartling said. “We seemed slow off the whistle and struggled to keep our opponents on the mat.”
Next up, the Trojans head to the Newman Grove tournament Dec. 29.
“Our goal for the next few weeks will be to continue to improve and figure out exactly what our styles are going to be this season,” Bartling said. “We will be starting the march towards the postseason and will finally start getting our guys to their weight classes and then we will be a much tougher team to deal with.”