Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Sharing a practice room with state champions and nationally ranked wrestlers Graham Gambrall spent the first few months of his high school career doing what any smart freshman would do.

He kept his eyes and ears open, asked some questions and tried to learn as much as possible.

“I just worked hard in practice and tried to learn,” Gambrall said. “With guys in the room that are doing the same thing and having success like Nelson (Brands) and Francis (Duggan) it helps. It pushes you to be better and gives you guys to talk to and follow their lead.”

After a solid start to his career that philosophy is paying off for the West High freshman.

Gambrall (44-16) won the 132-pound title at the Class 3A, District 4 meet last Saturday and brings a 13-match winning streak into the Class 3A state meet on Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Suddenly the questions are being asked of Gambrall. The top question being – just how good can the freshman be?

“He is just kind of starting to scratch the surface because he didn’t wrestle a ton coming up through the ranks,” West High coach Mark Reiland said. “He really is starting to find out what he is about. He is getting there, he keeps getting better.”

The question of just how good Gambrall can become gets more valid every meet.

Gambrall opened his freshman season 12-7 and was 20-10 following a loss to eighth-ranked Dylan Falck of Cedar Rapids Kennedy in his first match of 2018 in a January 4th dual.

Shortly after the 8-5 loss to Falck the light bulb started to go on for Gambrall.

He has won 24 of his 30 matches since with five of those losses coming to top-three ranked wrestlers.

“It’s definitely different than AAU and junior high wrestling and it took a little bit but we have a lot of matches, I’ve had 60 matches and that definitely helps,” Gambrall said. “Every match I tried to improve and tried to find that one thing to maybe work on that match and then the next match I tried to work on something else to keep getting better.”

After months of steady improvement, the breakthrough for Gambrall came at the Mississippi Valley Conference meet.

Gambrall knocked off sixth-ranked Will Foremann of Cedar Rapids Washington 11-10 in the semifinals and avenged a December loss to City High seventh-ranked senior Lance Bormann with a 11-3 major decision.

“I was looking forward to that meet, it was definitely circled on the calendar,” Gambrall said of the MVC meet. “It definitely boosted my confidence. I had some really good wins in there.”

Challenged by a 60-match schedule that has included four losses to out-of-state competition and five matches against the top three ranked wrestlers in his weight class, Gambrall enters his first state tournament wrestling better than ever before.

Fifth-ranked Gambrall has won 13 straight matches entering his state meet debut on Thursday against fourth-ranked West Des Moines Valley freshman Caleb Corbin (35-7).

“The experience he has gotten is adding up and hopefully he can put some matches together down there and come out and get on the podium,” Reiland said. “He’s up for the challenge. Hopefully it’s going to pay off next week.”

Coming from a family with strong wrestling roots, Gambrall has a goal for his state meet of setting a new family record – a medal as a freshman.

“I want to get on the awards stand and take a step up from my brothers,” Gambrall said. “They never got on the awards stand as a freshman so I want to do that.”