The Oeltjans had four grandsons competing at the Qwest Center in Omaha, hailing from three different schools. The family roster of state qualifiers included 112-pounder Dillon Glause and 125-pounder Morgan Glause, both of Palmer, as well as Kearney Catholic's Brandon Pacheco (135) and Crofton's Dominic Miller (103).

Coming from what John Oeltjan described as a "wrestling family," it's probably no coincidence that the bloodlines were well-represented in the state meet.

"They've all been wrestling since they were four or five years old," Joan Oeltjan said. "They were always wrestling around all the time, especially when we'd have family get-togethers. You had to walk over top of them to get across the living room floor."

After having to spend most of this past wrestling season carefully considering travel plans to try and watch each of their grandsons wrestle, Joan Oeltjan said it has been a lot of fun and convenient to have the whole family at one location.

"It was harder during the season because we always wanted to try and be fair and a lot of our grandsons' meets were on the same days, so this has been really neat," she said. "Here, we can just sit in one place and watch all four. It has been great and we're really proud of them all."

Matt mayhem

A unique set of circumstances that occurred Thursday night showed that the Nebraska School Activities Association should reconsider its policy of moving matches to mats other than the ones they were originally assigned to.

With the quarterfinal round of Class D competition finishing well ahead of the Class A quarterfinals, Class A matches were then assigned to the open four mats. Sounds like a good concept, right? There's less waiting around and everyone gets home earlier.

The problem arose when schools like Grand Island Senior High and Millard South suddenly found themselves with four wrestlers competing at the same time a big issue as the schools are limited to bringing three coaches on the floor for the state tournament.

Grand Island coach Mike Schadwinkel was clearly displeased, especially since NSAA officials wouldn't allow the coaches to position themselves at a point where they could conceivably coach two matches at once.

"Only being allowed to have three coaches down here and then spreading four kids out on the mats and then not letting us sit in between to try and coach the kids is just not right," Schadwinkel said. "It's not fair to these kids. These kids worked all year to get down here and then you leave them hanging on a mat without a coach and that isn't right."

Although it's probably a fairly rare occurrence, it's obvious how it can affect teams like Grand Island, which qualified wrestlers in every weight class. Schadwinkel said he thinks the solution is obvious.

"Either they need to either keep Class A on four mats or let us have more coaches," Schadwinkel said. "They need to solve this because it isn't right for the kids and that's what the whole thing is supposed to be about is the kids."

Terry Douglass is sports editor for The Independent.

State Wrestling Mega Gallery 600+ Photos