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BLOOMING PRAIRIE – Blooming Prairie junior Bo Zweiner and Hayfield senior Kevin Hodge have both been wrestling for almost as long as they can remember and if there is one thing they have learned about the sport, it’s that you have to keep going, especially when things get tough.

Zweiner is a three-time state qualifier for the Westfield Razorbacks, which is a co-op between BP and Hayfield, and he finally reached the podium at state last season when he finished in sixth place, but Hodge is still chasing a state berth, after he came up a triple overtime loss short of making it to state last season.

“Both of them work extremely hard,” Westfield head coach David Lasahn said of Zweiner and Hodge. “They’re definitely not going to get outworked in the practice room. They lead by example and they’re vocal when they need to be vocal.”

Hodge, who will likely wrestle at 121-pounds this season, has thought about that triple overtime loss in last year’s section meet for a good part of the offseason. He’s used it as motivation for all of his training sessions.

“It’s been on my mind a little bit,” Hodge said of the triple overtime loss. “I think I need to push myself a little bit harder, whether it’s another sprint or maybe lift a little bit more weight.”

Hodge’s work has paid off in the past as he has nearly doubled his record every season since he started wrestling with the Razorbacks. He is highly driven to get to state this year as he had older cousins who wrestled for Chatfield and advanced to state in past years.

“I always thought it would be cool to wrestle in high school and I’d like to wrestle in state, hopefully. We’ll see,” Hodge said. “(When I’m down in a match), I just try to keep my mind in it and remind myself that I’m always in it. In wrestling, you can be down 14-0 and you can still escape, get a pin and win the match. You score as many points as you can and you try to win.”

Hodge, who has 67 career wins after going 33-10 last year, began wrestling in kindergarten and the sport has always been a passion of his. He met Zweiner in elementary school as part of the Westfield program and the two have been teammates and friends ever since.

Zweiner, who will likely wrestle at 139 this season, is closing in on 100 wins in his career and he has gone 67-15 in the past two combined seasons. Even with all of that success, he is still hoping to improve and his best method of getting better is to look back on his miscues on the mat.

“I like to watch all of my matches and I learn a lot more from my losses. I’ll see what I did wrong and what I need to do better,” Zweiner said.

Zweiner began wrestling in preschool and his original plan was to switch to basketball when he could start playing in third grade. But after having success in youth tournaments, Zweiner found a love for wrestling and he couldn’t give up the sport.

Whenever Zweiner is struggling for motivation in a match or in practice, he thinks of his teammates..

“I see my teammates on the side and I’m doing it for them. It’s really a team sport and an individual sport also and that’s what’s nice about wrestling,” Zweiner said. “I’m just trying to keep getting wins for my team, honestly. In one of my first years on the team, Colton Krell and Dylan Nirk were really good captains and last year, Cade Christianson really helped me a lot.”

While they come from different high schools, Zweiner and Hodge have combined their efforts to lead the Westfield team this season. 

“Kevin kind of keeps the morale up. He makes everyone laugh and smile,” Zweiner said. “(The co-op) has been really nice because we’re friends during wrestling season and then when we play Hayfield in football, I know all of those guys over there.”

Getting to state is a major goal for both Zweiner and Hodge this season, but another goal they’re learning to embrace is to lead the younger wrestlers on the team.

“When I was younger, the older kids always showed me stuff and told me what my job was,” Hodge said. “Maybe I had to go out and get a pin, not get pinned or just try to win the match to help us as a team. Now I have to direct the younger kids on what to do.”

Westfield will open its season at the St. Charles Invite at 9 a.m. on Dec. 2.