Hoesing, Hochstein earn wins in BC dual meet here

HARTINGTON — Two Cedar Catholic wrestlers earned wins during an opening-season dual here with Battle Creek.

The meet featured more forfeits than matches, as Battle Creek was able to earn the 60-15 win as they put 11 wrestlers on the mat, while Cedar only had seven competitors.

Connor Hochstein and Eric Hoesing both had their arms raised at the conclusion of their Thursday matches. A third Cedar wrestler had a great shot at victory, but lost on a technicality at the buzzer.

Hoesing took on Battle Creek’s Kase Thompson, earning a pin with just 19 seconds left in the first period.

Hochstein earned a hard-fought 14-8 decision over Kaden Warneke, in the 160-pound contest.

Hochstein earned the first-period takedown, but Warneke earned the escape. The duo then repeated that routine to make it 4-2. Hochstein extended his lead to 6-4 in the second frame. He also earned a reversal and back points in the third period to earn the win.

A pair of Cedar wrestlers made their career debuts on the wrestling mat Thursday. Keegan Carl competed in the first match of the night in the 106-pound division against Garrett Finke.

The duo competed for the takedown throughout the first period before Finke was finally able to earn it with just three seconds left in the opening period to take a 2-0 lead.

Finke used his experience to earn a secondperiod reversal and then picked up back points to build an 8-2 advantage after two periods.

The two wrestlers continued to battle in the third period before Carl earned an escape to make it 8-3. Finke sealed the win with a takedown to make it 10-3 and give his team three points.

The other rookie on the mat Thursday night was Cedar Catholic senior Jacob Keiser. Keiser wasn’t able to gain any experience, though, as he earned a forfeit in the 195-pound class.

Owen Lade used a takedown and backpoints to build an 8-0 lead over Cedar’s Nash Albers before ending the match with a pin with just 26 seconds left in the first period of the 138-pound match.

The 145-pound match turned out to be the most exciting match of the night as Kerby Hochstein and Kobe Thompson battled evenly throughout.

After numerous attempts to gain control, Hochstein finally earned the takedown with 12 seconds left in the first period. Thompson was able to escape just before the buzzer, though, to make it 2-1 to start the second period.

Thompson started on the bottom in the second period, and earned another escape to tie the match and take a 4-2 lead.

Hochstein started on the bottom in the third period and earned a reversal to knot it up at 4-4 with 53 seconds left in the match.

It looked as though the contest was headed for overtime, but Hochstein was penalized for an illegal hand grasp at the final buzzer, giving Thompson the 5-4 win.