Des Moines, Ia (KICD) – The Iowa High School State Boys Wrestling Tournament wrapped up on Saturday night with the Finals matches. After a wild 4 days of wrestling with different wrestlers navigating their way differently through the bracket, only one KICD area athlete made it to the Finals matches in front of a near capacity crowd in Wells Fargo Arena. Emmetsburg’s Jace Nelson-Brown would take on Columbus Catholic of Waterloo’s Maximus Magayna for the Class 1A 170lb Championship Final.

The then-Two-Time Champion Magayna showed his skill in the match, getting quick takedowns and keeping control of Nelson-Brown when on Top. In the Second Period, Nelson-Brown was able to get a good ride in, with some nice returns, but was unable to control Magayna through the remainder of the Period. Magayna would come away with the 16-0 Tech Fall after managing to turn Nelson-Brown a few times along with the takedowns.

The loss gave Jace Nelson-Brown the Silver Medal at 170. It was an outstanding season that gave Nelson-Brown a #2 seed in the tournament that he used to get through to Saturday Night. Nelson-Brown talked about his season.

The Emmetsburg E-Hawks were able to finish in the top 10 standings as a team, getting five wrestlers on the podium in all. Coach Mark Klaus talked about Jace Nelson-Brown’s development through the year.

Jace Nelson-Brown is only a junior, and will be looking to make another run at a State Title in 2024.

Saturday afternoon marked the end of the State Wrestling Tournament for the rest of our KICD area schools. The Spencer Tigers set a school record for State Qualifiers in a single season with 8. Coach Adam Gress talked about what this season means to the Spencer Wrestling Program.

The Spencer Tigers will lose two of those qualifiers to graduation.

Later this week KICD will have a story on the area placewinners.