Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – Nelson Brands will have a chance to make history on Saturday.

On Friday it was business as usual for the West High senior standout.

Brands bulled his way back to the state title match for the third straight season with a pair of impressive wins on Friday at the Class 3A state wrestling championships at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Top-ranked Brands (54-1) dispatched second-ranked Zane Mulder of Dallas Center-Grimes 9-5 in the quarterfinals and returned to the state title match for the third straight season with a second-period pin of No. 7 Levi Egli of Fort Dodge in the 160-pound semifinals.

On Saturday, Brands will attempt to join four-time champion Nick Moore as just the second wrestler in the storied history of the West High program to win a third state title.

“He could have widened the gap a little bit the first match but he knows where he’s at and he knows what is on the horizon,” West High coach Mark Reiland said. “He knows what’s ahead.”

Brands was dominant in his return to the state title match.

The two-time defending champ scored a takedown six seconds into his semifinal win and rolled up five takedowns before putting Egli on his back 30 seconds into the second period.

“I think he felt a little better but he prepares the same way every match,” Reiland said. “That is what you have to do.”

Brands improved to 11-0 in state tournament matches with the semifinal win and will face fourth-ranked Wilfred Kadohou (38-7) of City High in the 160-pound title match.

Brands has defeated Kadohou twice this season, mostly recently via a 29-8 tech fall in the district title match.

“You have to go out and do what have prepared yourself to do,” Reiland said. “It doesn’t matter who is out there you just go out there and compete. Whether it be somebody he has wrestled or somebody he hasn’t he has to go out and wrestle the way he wrestles.”

Brands joins fellow top-ranked senior Francis Duggan in the finals as West High pushed its way to sixth in the Class 3A team standings with 63 points.
Duggan (14-2) continued to impress in his first trip to the Iowa state tournament reaching the finals at 220 pounds with a 16-7 major decision over fourth-ranked Drake Leek of Norwalk.

A three-time state medalist in Pennsylvania, Duggan will face second-ranked Greg Hagan (38-1) of West Des Moines Dowling in the state title match.

Duggan handed Hagan his only loss of the season with a 16-7 major decision in the finals of the Ed Winger Classic last month.

With titles on Saturday Brands and Duggan can give the Trojans two champs in the season for the first time since Phillip Laux (113) and Dakota Bauer (132) won titles in 2012.

Guy Snow dropped a 5-2 decision to fourth-ranked Dylan Olson of Dubuque Hempstead in the 285-pound semifinals while 132-pound freshman Graham Gambrall stayed alive with a 3-2 win over Spencer Anderson of Ankeny.

Class 3A State Meet

Team scores (Top 10; Area Teams) – 1. Fort Dodge 128; 2. Waukee 102; 3. Southeast Polk 90.5; 4. West Des Moines Valley 86.5; 5. City High 65; 6. West High 63; 7. Glenwood 51.5; 8. Dubuque Hempstead 51; 9. Johnston 50.5; 10. Perry 50.

Individual Results (Area Athletes Only)

Quarterfinals

160 – No. 1 Nelson Brands (West High) dec. No. 2 Zane Mulder (Dallas Center-Grimes) 9-5

220 – No. 1 Francis Duggan (West High) tech. fall. Jaden Heiden (Denison-Schleswig) 21-6

285 – Guy Snow (West High) dec. No. 8 Cole Ernst (North Scott) 6-3 TB-1

Semifinals 

160 – No. 1 Nelson Brands (West High) pinned No. 7 Levi Egli (Fort Dodge) 2:38

220 – No. 1 Francis Duggan (West High) major dec. No. 4 Drake Leek (Norwalk) 16-7

285 – No. 4 Dylan Olson (Dubuque Hempstead) dec. Guy Snow (West High) 5-2

Second Round Consolation

132 – No. 5 Graham Gambrall (West High) dec. No. 6 Will Foreman (Cedar Rapids Washington) 7-5

170 –  No. 4 Thaddeus Breitsprecker (Southeast Polk) major dec. Ashton Stumpf (West High) 11-2

182 – No. 2 Anthony Sherry (Glenwood) pinned No. 8 Will Hoeft (West High) 3:41

Third Round Consolation

132 – No. 5 Graham Gambrall (West High) dec. Spencer Anderson (Ankeny) 3-2

Saturday’s Championships

160 – No. 1 Nelson Brands (54-1), Sr., West High vs. No. 4 Wilfred Kadohou (39-7), Sr., City High

220 – No. 1 Francis Duggan (14-2), Sr., West High vs. No. 2 Greg Hagan (38-1), Sr., West Des Moines Dowling