NEWTON – Nick Treaster spent late July in Rome wrestling for the U.S. Greco-Roman team in the U17 World Championships. It was a landmark achievement for the Newton High School senior, who began training at age 3 and is one of the state’s brightest stars in high school wrestling with three Class 5A individual titles.
 
The experience offered Treaster, the youngest of an accomplished wrestling family, a chance to train and bond with nine other Team USA members at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A chance to further develop and grow as a wrestler.
 
And an awakening of sorts to competition through the eyes of international competitors.
 
“They view wrestling as a very, very serious thing,” Treaster said. “In some cases, it’s like life or death. For me, I see life after wrestling, but they see life as wrestling.”
 
Treaster, the CapFed® True Blue® Student of the Week, has prospects for a bright future, no doubt. His senior wrestling season is off to a roaring start with eight victories in as many matches as he pursues a fourth state title, a feat accomplished by his father, Matt, from 1981-84 at Beloit. Like his dad and older brothers Logan and Grant – individual state champions as well during their high school days at Newton – Nick will study and compete at the U.S. Naval Academy beginning next fall.

 
But Treaster’s big picture includes the present, one he immerses himself in as an honors student with a weighted grade-point average north of 4.0 while active in many clubs and organizations at Newton.
 
“My brothers were really involved in high school, and I try to get out of my comfort zone and be a part of different groups with different people,” Treaster said. “I have a feeling that I can connect with all different types of people.”
 
That connection is evident in the hallways of NHS, as Treaster passes by a wrestling teammate with some friendly chatter and offers hellos to a group of teachers on his way to find Railers wrestling coach Tommy Edgmon. Edgmon, in his ninth year leading the program, says Treaster’s influence is felt daily at the school.
 
“On the mat, off the mat and with other students, he sets the example, but he also takes care of and mentors other kids,” Edgmon said. “He’s very social. Everybody knows who he is. He was a class president last year. But he doesn’t hold himself higher or think he’s better than anyone. You can see that he has very good character.”
 
Treaster recently completed his fourth cross country season, serving as a team captain in a sport that helps him train for wrestling. He was inducted into the school’s National Honor Society chapter last year and serves as NHS president this year. He’s also been involved in student council all four years as well as Newton’s Student Activities Leadership Team (SALT) and a group that organizes theme nights for the school’s student section at sporting events.
 
“He’s one of those kids who just has that sense of leadership,” Newton assistant principal and athletic director Brian Becker said. “You can’t teach it. I don’t know how else to put it.
 
“He is highly involved in a lot of different organizations. The kids just look up to him and respect him.”
 
The peak of that influence occurs in Newton’s wrestling room, where Treaster is one of five returning state placers hoping to help the Railers end Goddard’s eight-year reign atop Class 5A. The veteran group is benefitting from having Logan Treaster, who wrestled at Navy from 2017-21, on Edgmon’s staff for a second straight season while he is also in the early stages of attending medical school in Wichita.
 
Edgmon has given the elder Treaster leeway to introduce some of the practice concepts he learned while competing for Navy coach Cary Kolat, a 2000 U.S. Olympian who will be Nick’s collegiate coach.
 
“A lot of things have been instilled and they feel like they’re almost permanent now,” said Nick Treaster, who has a career high school record of 116-4 heading into this weekend’s Kansas City Stampede tournament. “Last year, everything was new and it felt very different, but people liked it. Not that the previous years were bad. We’ve just improved on them.
 
“It just feels like this is going to be the best year. Everything has fallen into place and our team looks really good. We are really deep as far as our lineup goes, and we have incredible coaching.”
 
Meanwhile, Treaster’s leadership reach continues to stretch beyond the walls of his school. He is in his second year as a member of KSHSAA’s Student Advisory Team, a 12-student group with state-wide representation from all classifications who provides input to KSHSAA’s executive board, board of directors and association staff on a number of student issues.
 
Treaster has offered input on KSHSAA’s classification modifier proposal for private schools, which was passed by the Kansas State Board of Education in September and will move to the Kansas Legislature for consideration. As a wrestler who has competed on state-level teams, he has also networked with fellow athletes and coaches to discuss issues he shares as a Student Advisory Team member.
 
“I really like being part of the Student Advisory Team,” Treaster said. “I’ve felt like I’m able to contribute something and be a part of something bigger.
 
“You gain an appreciation for what they do. And having grown up in wrestling and seeing all the decisions that have affected the sport, I’ve been able to take input from my coaches and friends, and friends on other teams. I feel like I’m doing their work. I’m trying to represent them well and make wrestling a better sport in Kansas.”
 
Treaster’s myriad involvement allows him to stay in the moment and not get ahead of himself. While his college choice may have seemed preordained with his father and brothers preceding him at Navy, Treaster said he initially resisted the idea because “I didn’t want to be a carbon copy.” But after considering Navy along with Princeton and Harvard, the opportunities it provided along with an emerging feeling of home swayed him.
 
Treaster also isn’t obsessed with the possibility of becoming the Railers’ first four-time state champion, matching his dad’s total and raising the family state title count to 11.
 
“It’s just something that is known,” Treaster said. “It doesn’t really need to be talked about.
 
“My brother always likes to say pressure is privilege. I kind of like that saying. It makes me feel like I’m being given really good opportunities and I’m just trying to make the most of it.”