Southeast Nebraska sends 50 athletes to 2025 boys wrestling state championships

 Now it's time for boys wrestling to take center stage as the top grapplers from across the state hit the mats at the CHI Health Center in Omaha for the 2025 NSAA Boys Wrestling State Championships, which begin this Thursday, February 20!

Boys wrestling continues to explode in participation in the greater Midwest and especially locally in Nebraska. The sport's popularity is buoyed by the success of many local universities at the college level, but even at the high school level there is a ton of talent and excitement in the sport, and that will be on full display at the end of this week.

Schools are subdivided into four classes for boys wrestling in Nebraska (A B C and D) with a total of 14 weight classes contested in each class. In other words, 56 individual state champions will be crowned by the end of this week's event, which athletes qualified for by placing fourth or better in their district final tournament over last weekend at different host sites across the state. 

In total, exactly 50 athletes competing in the field this week represent a total of 14 individual schools hailing from Southeast Nebraska. There are no Class A schools in the region, but all three other classes will have contestants, and they all will have contenders for championships from across our region. 

In Class B, both Beatrice and Seward will send five state qualifiers to Omaha this week. The Orangemen are headlined by juniors Cole Karlin (126) and Merrick Johnson (175), both of whom won district titles at Waverly, while the Bluejays can boast three different district runners-up. Crete senior Ashton Sundling will be a name to watch at 175 after he won his own district final on Saturday. 

In Class C, Wilber-Clatonia will send an impressive six state qualifiers to Omaha. The Wolverine sent nine wrestlers to the district final at Kearney Catholic and still finished third as a team, aided by first-place finishes for Zaiyahn Ornelas (120) and Iverson Mejia (150). Milford is sending five state qualifiers from a team that finished sixth at districts, and the trios from both Tri County and Fillmore Central stand to do some damage in this bracket too. 

And in Class D, four athletes from both Southern and Thayer Central have made the field. Despite sending only eight qualifiers to districts, the Raiders finished fourth as a team because they had three athletes finish first (Wyatt Forney, 113; Drake Troxel, 144; and Koltan Ideus, 157) and another finish second (Carsen Goes, 190). The Titans finished sixth in their district led by a second-place finish from junior Cole Vorderstrasse (215). And Meridian's JD Adam is one of the top wrestlers in the region regardless of weight; he comes in as a frontrunner at 175 off another excellent district campaign, and the Mustangs feature two other district runners-up. 

The full list of 2025 boys wrestling state tournament qualifiers from schools in Southeast Nebraska is below, sorted alphabetically by school. We'll have plenty of coverage from the event later this week here on News Channel Nebraska, as well as hourly updates with the latest results airing throughout the week on Ol' Red 99.5 and KWBE. 

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BEATRICE (5)

B106 - Que Farley-Martin, FR

B120 - Talon Belding, JR

B126 - Cole Karlin, JR

B175 - Merrick Johnson, JR

B215 - Gavyn Rhoden, JR

CRETE (2)

B138 - Lyle Van Horn, SO

B175 - Ashton Sundling, SR

EMF (1)

D165 - Dayton Kremer, SR

FAIRBURY (3)

B138 - Dalton VanLaningham, SR

B165 - Konrad Kuzelka, JR

B285 - Layne Fees, JR

FILLMORE CENTRAL (3)

C113 - Hudson Lefever, FR

C120 - Kayden Bolejack, SO

C132 - Wyatt Hatteman, SO

JOHNSON COUNTY CENTRAL (2)

C106 - Erik Prado, SO

C138 - Logan Topp, SR

MERIDIAN (3)

D132 - Carter Haveluck, JR

D175 - JD Adam, SR

D285 - Kyan Sones, JR

MILFORD (5)

C120 - Kellen Lovitt, SO

C126 - Quinn Zegers, JR

C144 - Cooper Rea, SR

C150 - Hunter Dickinson, SR

C285 - Garrett Schoen, JR

NORRIS (4)

B157 - Brigham Schoenbeck, SR

B190 - Eric Hall, SR

B215 - Rylan Schoenbeck, SO

B285 - Harrison Hudson, SR

SEWARD (5)

B106 - Jack Langner, FR

B150 - Caleb Jackson, SR

B190 - Caden Schadwinkel, SR

B215 - Aidan Summa, JR

B285 - Cooper Fern, SR

SOUTHERN (4)

D113 - Wyatt Forney, SO

D144 - Drake Troxel, FR

D157 - Koltan Ideus, JR

D190 - Carson Goes, JR

THAYER CENTRAL (4)

D106 - Jaxson Bowers, FR

D126 - Owen McLaughlin, FR

D215 - Cole Vorderstrasse, JR

D285 - James Bonar, JR

TRI COUNTY (3)

C144 - Cole Spahr, SR

C175 - Riley Kopf, SR

C215 - Cooper Stokebrand, SR

WILBER-CLATONIA (6)

C120 - Zaiyahn Ornelas, JR

C132 - Grant Eschiti, JR

C138 - Ryan Marsh, SR

C144 - Logan Zimmerman, JR

C150 - Iverson Mejia, SR

C157 - Ty Roesler, SO