Wrestlers claim team title at Howells-Dodge

HOWELLS — Coaches knew this year’s Cedar Catholic wrestling team had a lot of potential.

The squad proved them right straight from the start, claiming a school record 154 points to win Saturday’s 17-team Howells-Dodge invitational.

The season-opening win also marked the first time in the 19-year history of the program that Cedar had ever claimed a tournament title.

“Getting our first-ever tournament team title was definitely a long time coming,” Cedar Catholic Coach Justin Bartling said. “This is an excellent group of kids who are willing to put in the extra work and it showed. We definitely turned some heads this weekend.”

Cedar captured four individual titles enroute to the team title.

“Overall, as a team we wrestled extremely well and aggressive,” Cedar head coach Justin Bartling said. “We spent the majority of the matches scoring the first points and really put the pressure on our opponent.”

Sophomore Maverick Heine won his bracket with a sweep of five matches as did Easton Hochstein who did so in his first-ever high school performance. Senior Kale Korth and junior Braeden Kleinschmit did the same.

Freshman Bodie Hochstein captured second place as he recorded a win over a Top 10 Class C wrestler in the semifinal before falling to a defending state champ in the title tilt.

Brady Hochstein captured a thirdplace medal, while, Nicholas Coleman brought back a third-place performance to brag about as his three wins also equaled his previous winter total.

Tavious Pinkelman stepped up big going 4-1 and taking fourth, while also equaling his win total for all of 2022-23.

Additionally, Brody Kleinschmit and Hunter Kuchta both finished fifth while Ty Opfer and Castin Pinkelman also hit the mat for the Trojans.

“The biggest highs on Saturday were watching the massive growth from everyone on the team,” Bartling said. “Tavious and Nicholas each won as many matches as all of last season. Braeden was able to get revenge in the finals against an opponent who majored us last season.

Cedar’s young wrestlers were not at all afraid to take the mat for the first varsity competition of their careers.

“The freshmen group definitely were prepared and ready for the change. Bodie and Easton Hochstein both had tough matches throughout the day against some upperclassmen but were not fazed at all,” Coach Bartling said.

Bartling also took note of his boys aggressiveness and the ability to keep the pressure on befuddled opponents.

Korth said the team was on the attack all weekend and it comes from growing confidence throughout the roster.

“Nobody really got too frustrated with themselves and we all performed well and the offensive side worked really well,” Korth said. “The coaches work hard and teach us new moves and new ways to get out of things. They look to see what we can improve on and help us improve on those things to become better and win.

Korth said he is impressed by the team’s feisty group of freshmen.

“The freshmen are pushing us really hard. It’s a blast beating on them and I want to keep it that way,” he said.

This week the Trojans compete with state-ranked Battle Creek Thursday in the first Cedar Catholic home meet of the season.

They then head to West Point Friday for the Catholic School Dual Classic and finish the week off Saturday at the Stanton Invite.

“It will be a challenging week for the boys but we will attack it head on and hope to keep the momentum going,” Bartling said.

The Cedar Catholic girls team will also attend their first ever tournament at West Holt (held Monday).

“This is the first girls wrestling team in school history and will be exciting to watch the girls finally compete with other teams,” Bartling said.

Howells-Dodge Team scores

1. Cedar Catholic, 154; 2. Tekamah-Herman, 133.5; 3. Wisner-Pilger, 97.5; 4. Madison, 83; 5. Oakland-Craig, 67.5; 6. Summerland, 64.5. 7. Howells-Dodge, 56. 7. Lyons-Decatur, 56; 9. Elgin Public/ Pope John, 47.5; 10. Fremont Bergan, 45.5; 11. Clarkson-Leigh, 36; 12. Stanton, 30; 13. Wakefield, 28; 14. Ponca, 14; 15. Bancroft-Rosalie, 10; 16. Cedar Bluffs, 0; 17. Scribner-Snyder, 0.

Rob Dump | Cedar County News