Elkhorn Valley's Stewart Twins Take Aim At State Championships

Last year, Elkhorn Valley exploded to one of the best wrestling seasons in school history, placing third at the state wrestling meet. Five Falcons returned home with medals. Two of those were sophomore twin brothers Darren and Dillon Stewart, sons of Todd and Julie Stewart.

The Stewarts finished the year with a combined 77-13 record. Dillon took third place in the 106 pound class while Darren took fourth at 120. 

Now juniors, the Stewart brothers seem to just keep getting better. Through the first few meets of the season, the two have combined for 18 wins with just a single loss. That one loss came when Darren fell to Plainview’s Trenton Steinkraus, another returning state qualifier at 132 pounds.

The two brothers began wrestling together at a young age, simply as a way to burn off some energy. 

“We were agressive when we were younger so our mom and dad to us to just wear off energy in the wrestling room,” explained Dillon. “We had been wrestling since preschool.”

“We were never really interested in it until fourth grade,” added Darren.

Darren is the slightly bigger wrestler of the two, a small point of pride with him. He moved up a class from last year, now wrestling at 132 pounds while Dillon now takes the mat at 113 pounds. Dillon has had just one match all year last longer than 1:50, an 18-2 technical fall victory over Ben Wood of Central Valley. Darren has been equally impressive, taking all of his wins by way of pin with the exception of a 17-2 technical fall victory over Palmer’s Roy Guzman.

Despite their father not having been a wrestler in high school, wrestling has become a big part of life for the Stewart family. In fact, wrestling spills over into the home, in a safe way.

“We wrestle at home all the time,” said Darren. “We have a wrestling mat down in the basement now.”
The two haven’t wrestled each other competitively since they were younger, but they work every day as wrestling partners. They continually help one another improve and always make a point to be there for each other during a big match. 

Both Dillon and Darren have an obvious goal.

“We both just want to be state champs,” Dillon said. “That’s what we’ve been working for.”
While the twins obviously have a strong bond, they also feel close to the rest of the team, a key compenent for another strong state run.

​The wrestling season is still young, but the ever-improving brothers are on the right track to reach their goal of winning that state championship. If all goes well, they may just lead the entire Elkhorn Valley team to their first as well.