By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Schridde. Weber. Roberts. Schwartz. Liles. The Ball brothers in Hoisington. Porsch and Bell in Hoxie. Success in wrestling often has family ties. A pair of current Great Bend High School wrestlers are carrying on that tradition. Senior Jace Schartz entered the New Year ranked No. 3 at 165 pounds, and freshman Cal Schartz entered January ranked No. 2 at 113 pounds. The brothers are sharing success in a new sport for the family.
"No one in my family had wrestled a whole lot," Jace said. "I was always competitive. You could only do rec sports at a young age, and really the only competitive thing there was was wrestling. My dad threw me into and I wasn't very good."
When he was seven, Jace was introduced to Hoisington's Bruce Ball and his five sons, who would go on to win a combined 10 Class 3-2-1A state championships for Hoisington High School. Brandon won four titles and Christopher accounted for three more. All five brothers won at least one state title. Cal was able to benefit from that wrestling knowledge at an even earlier age, and Jace continues to work with Jonathan Ball.
The brothers will share just one year of high school wrestling and the experience has been a different one for each. Jace entered his freshman year wrestling at 145 pounds behind Great Bend's two-time state champion Wyatt Weber. Wrestling against experienced upperclassmen, he struggled to a 26-22 season but still came up one win shy of a state medal at the Class 5A State Championships.
Cal entered his freshman season wrestling at 113 pounds, which means most of his opponents will be his own age. Top-ranked Jayden Grijalva, a senior at Goddard, is an exception as 10 of the top-11 wrestlers in the two lightest weight classes are all freshmen and sophomores. Cal already has a tech-fall win against fourth-ranked Cruz Cannon of Hutchinson, a sophomore and returning state medalist.
"Being a freshman, the smaller weights are a lot better because you don't wrestle as many upperclassmen," said Cal, who also plays football and baseball for the Panthers. "For the other sports, it's definitely important to put on some weight."
Jace rebounded from that freshman season with a fifth-place state finish in 2023. Last year, he defeated Hutchinson's top-ranked Kade Smith in an ultimate tie-break to win a regional title. Smith avenged the loss the following week in a dramatic state semifinal. Jace rebounded to place third at 157 pounds with a 41-6 record. Smith is currently ranked No. 1 at 165 pounds ahead of Jace, and the pair will likely meet this weekend in Dodge City.
Given the weight and age difference, the Schartz brothers don't exactly wrestle all the time, but they are able to discuss opponents and compare notes.
"We're both good at different things," Jace said. "He's a lot more explosive and a shooter and I'm more of a scrambler. He's able to say things he knows to defend the scramblers and I can say how I defend someone that wrestles with his style. It really does help quite a bit having two top-notch guys. We can't wrestler together hard but we can talk about situations and positions to help each other."
Jace, who picked up his 100th career win last season, has established himself as a master of the tech-fall, or beating an opponent by 15 points. Cal is following in those footsteps. Jace is now fewer than 10 tech-fall wins away from a state record.
"It's really just to be dominant," he said. "If you go out there and wrestle 30 seconds, you don't get as much work in. If I pin a guy, maybe I just got lucky. But if I beat him 15-0, maybe he doesn't ever want to step on the mat with me again."
Jace has proven himself at the high school level with a pair of state medals and a third likely on the way. Cal, a two-time Kids state champion and six-time state finalist, is enjoying his first opportunity to wrestle at the varsity level.
"Pretty much none of my friends wrestle," he said. I go to tournaments and it's pretty much just me and maybe Jace is there so I don't have anyone to warm up with. In high school, everybody's there so there are a lot more partners and everywhere we go there are people to talk to."
Jace was also the running back for the Panther football team this fall and plans to try track and field for the first time in the spring. Cal also played football this fall and will play baseball in the spring. The boys are the sons of Darin and Lindsay Schartz.