There has not been a time in Quent Christensen’s life when he can remember not wrestling.

The Christensen family comes from a strong tradition of wrestling which leads back to Quent’s father and his eight other wrestling brothers.

“We are known for our last name,” Quent said. “If your last name is Christensen you are a wrestler.”

First cousins Cory, Tysen, Brooke and Quent have all been part of the Simpson wrestling tradition.

First there was Cory, originally from Winterset, who chose Simpson to continue his wrestling career and eventually became 1998 National Champion at 158 pounds.

Then in 1999 Cory’s little sister Brooke decided to come to Simpson College to play volleyball. Brooke is currently the team manager for the wrestling program.

“My dad was a coach for 24 years so I have always been at the meets,” Brooke said. “Coach Peterson just asked me if I wanted to be manager and I knew I would be at all the meets anyway so I decided to do it.”

Quent and Tysen are both freshmen on this year’s squad

“Cory’s dad Gary has relayed both Quent and Tysen to me, but actually Brooke was also instrumental when it came to recruiting them,” head coach Ron Peterson said.

Simpson is currently recruiting three more Christensen cousins for next year’s team.

“When we were younger at family gatherings all of us cousins would have wrestling matches,” Quent said. “We took turns beating on each other up until about the eighth grade.”

Quent has compiled a record of 23-11 with 7 pins for the Storm and Tysen is 24-14 on the year.

One might think that having so many relatives on one team could cause controversy. However, the Christensen’s feel fortunate to be able to experience it together.

“There is a lot of competition between us but we know that its family and it all stays on the mat,” Quent said.

“Quent and Tysen are always working together to get each other better,” Peterson said. “If one is wrestling you can guarantee that the other one is close by watching.”

If there wasn’t enough connection between the Christensen cousins and the Simpson wrestling program, senior wrestler Rob Hutt topped it off by asking another one of the female Christensen cousins to marry him.

“Just having everyone around the program makes the atmosphere a lot better,” Quent said.