Making history

ALBION — This year’s Cedar Catholic boys wrestling team stacked a few more school records Saturday onto its already impressive 2023-24 season.

The Trojans qualified a school record seven wrestlers for this week’s State wrestling tournament in Omaha. The team also gave St. Paul a run for its money in the chase for the District title before finishing as the Class C District 2 tournament runner-up.

Easton Hochstein now has the most wins by a Cedar freshman in history and he and his brother Bodie both brought home the program’s first-ever district champion medals. The team points were the most scored at a District meet (139) and the team plaque is the first in school history. The total of eight qualifiers – one was senior girl Madison Kuchta – is also a school record.

Champions include Bodie Hochstein (126) and his 40-1 record, brother Easton Hochstein (132) and 43-1 while Maverick Heine (113) was second at 113 and is now 39-3 this season.

Brady Hochstein (150) took second in his bracket and moved to 34-5 this campaign while Braeden Kleinschmit (138) also took second and saw his record puff up to 35-4 in 2023-24.

Kale Korth (175) brought home a third-place medal and is now 39-9 while Hunter Kuchta (144) ended up fourth and currently stands at 29-17 overall.

“The boys wrestled extremely well and lots of records were tied and broken throughout the day,” Cedar head coach Justin Bartling said.

“This was a very tough district with three of the teams that competed last week in the state duals with one of those teams being the state dual champions, so we knew we had our work cut out for us that’s for sure,” Bartling said.

Nicholas Coleman, Tavious Pinkelman, and Castin Pinkelman also competed but could not advance.

“I could not be prouder of this entire team,” Bartling said. “From day one to now the growth and improvement, as well as the confidence in their abilities has really continued to show. Every single wrestler in our room plays a large part in the success of this team and the growth of the program.

“State is going to be a lot of fun and it will be certainly a busy weekend in Omaha. There are few really tough draws right off the bat but these boys have been there before and I look forward to watching them take on the challenge. We continue to show the state that we are a very good team and while most teams have been surprised by us, we are not and we should be one of the few teams looking into a top 10 team finish for the first time.”

Both Bodie and Easton Hochstein were pumped up after winning the first individual medals in Trojan history.

“The team did really good and everyone wrestled their best,” Bodie said after an easy romp to his crown including a pin late in the first period of the title match. “I think we wrestled the best out of any team here. The hard work in the dressing room is paying off.

“I wrestled well and I pinned all my kids and did my moves really good. I definitely expected to be here when the season started.”

Easton beat Levi Boardman of Johnson County Central 2-0 to capture his top medal moments after his brother did. He managed to take the next step up to high school wrestling after a dominant career in the younger age brackets.

“I knew when I was at practice that I’d have to step it up to another level and work really hard in the wrestling room and perfect my moves,” Easton said. “I had to work on my shot defense and on my shots. High school is a whole other level – where they have more experience and knowledge. I needed to perfect everything to get where I wanted to be.

“These older kids may have been stronger but I think with my experience having wrestled since kindergarten, they still might not have as much experience as me. If they were stronger, I’d counteract them with knowledge and moves that I work on.”