This summer Carter Temple committed to being a two-sport athlete like never before.
The Kearney wrestler headed to Fargo last month and came back with a national championship in Greco-Roman and was an All-American in freestyle.
Last year, he struggled in his first trip to North Dakota after not having a lot of mat time. He qualified for Fargo at the USA Wrestling Southern Plains Regional.
“I don’t think he quite knew what to expect,” Kearney head coach Jake Hill said. “I think he realized, ‘Wow, this is big boy wrestling.’ So he spent this whole offseason with a goal in mind that he wanted to be an All-American and he wanted to win the thing. He’s easy to coach. He shows up and he works hard.”
Hill believes that Temple learned from the experience he gained during the 2023-24 high school season, and won the Class 3 175-pound championship on an ultimate tiebreaker. He played football last season and helped the Bulldogs win a Class 4 state championship.
That meant his start to wrestling got a lie start and his very first tournament — or event — was the KC Stampede in December. He went 4-1 and reached the finals.
Temple spent this offseason from wrestling juggling extra work on the mat and preparing for the 2024 football season. A wrestler at Greater Heights, he competed in five different tournaments after the high school season.
Temple spent time training with Brian Graham with Graham Greco, where he said he learned about staying in a good position and having success using arm drags.
He took first place at USA Wrestling State in Greco and was first in both Greco and freestyle at Southern Plains this summer. He actually missed weight at Southern Plains and had to bump up to 190, Hill said. That didn’t stop him and he went 4-0.
Temple said he was confident heading up to Fargo.
“I had the right attitude that nobody could beat me in Greco and in freestyle,” Temple said. “Of course, that didn’t happen in freestyle, but in Greco, I knew if I go and wrestle the way I have been wrestling then nobody could beat me.”
He started in freestyle, winning the first two before, losing to Cody Savage from Vermont in the round of 16.
Five wins in a row followed before falling in the third-place match to Nicholas Singer of Pennsylvania.
Next up was Greco, which Temple said is his favorite style.
He opened with two pins before winning by decisions, 5-1, 7-2 and 5-1 — the latter a win over Savage in the semifinals to avenge an earlier loss.
In the finals, he beat Isai Fernandez from California, 8-0, to claim the national title.
Hill said that Temple is the first boy wrestler from Kearney to earn double All-American honors since Grant Leeth did so in 2010.
“It is crazy to think about but you know this is a stepping stone if it keeps going how it should,” Temple said.
Temple is returned from Fargo and went right to football camp, aiming to earn the starting quarterback job for the defending state champion.
He said football is his favorite sport so it will get his full attention for now.
“I’ve been going for seven months straight so I’m going to take a little break and just play football,” he said.
He said he is at 188 pounds and expects to be at 190 for the Bulldogs this winter when wrestling starts.
But for now, it’s football time but the trip to Fargo will stick with him — and the Kearney wrestling program — for years.
“My parents and I were just talking about it a couple of nights ago … it’s like ‘man, I’m a national champion.”
