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Beau Kaufman fends off a shot in his 10-2 win over Brock Kleitsch of Wapsie Valley. Photo courtesy Lory Groe

Garrett Ham elevates a single against Garrett Miller of Wapsie Valley. Photo courtesy Lory Groe

Lucas Oldenkamp shoots in on a shot at State Duals Saturday. Photo courtesy Lory Groe

Wyatt Hanna controls Aiden Sullivan of Nashua-Plainfield in the State quarterfinal dual. Photo courtesy Lory Groe

Steve Brandenburg collected one pin and two major decisions at state duals Saturday. Photo courtesy Lory Groe

Lake Mills on Saturday returned to state duals for the first time since 2021.

The Xtream Arena in Coralville was the location this time around, instead of Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines the previous six trips.

The Bulldogs faced off against conference foe Nashua-Plainfield in the quarterfinals. Lake Mills had defeated the Huskies twice before Christmas break, but this time around N-P had two returning state qualifiers they didn’t have prior. The Bulldogs battled hard, but by the middle weights the dual was out of reach.

Therefore, Lake Mills rested a couple injured starters towards the end, and Nashua-Plainfield ran away with it, 46-22.

“We knew it would be really hard to beat them with those two kids back in the line-up,” said coach Alex Brandenburg. “We would have had to wrestle a nearly perfect dual to beat them.”

The loss dropped the team into the consolation semifinals where they took on Wapsie Valley. In a dual which went back and forth throughout, the Warriors did enough to eke out the win, 35-32.

“This dual was nip and tuck throughout,” Brandenburg said. “Both teams wrestled well and gave great effort, but they executed a few times more than us.”

In the final matchup of the state duals, Lake Mills took on Hinton for seventh place. Lake Mills jumped out early, taking a 23-9 lead with six matches left. After that, things fell apart, and the Black Hawks won the final six matches.

“Momentum is an underestimated element in the sport of wrestling when compared to other sports,” Brandenburg said. “This dual was almost the exact opposite of the regional dual against Denver where we won the final five matches.”

Hinton had wins in four straight close matches towards the end of the dual. State duals wrapped up the team portion of the Bulldogs season.

Overall, Lake Mills has now qualified for state 11 times in program history.

“Today did not go as we had hoped, but our kids should still be proud of what they accomplished as a team,” said Brandenburg. “It is not an easy task to make it to state in any sport and at the end of the day, it feels pretty good to be in the top 8 out of 120-some class 1A schools.”

Nashua-Plainfield 46, Lake Mills 22

175- Eli Kalainoff (N) pinned Josiah Kjeldahl, 1:20. 190- Titus Evans (N) pinned Ethan Lawson, 1:45. 215- Tate White (N) tech. fall Andrew Grunhovd, 19-4. 285- Wyatt Hanna (L) dec. Aiden Sullivan, 6-3. 106- Lucas Oldenkamp (L) pinned Connor Sullivan, 1:03. 113- Nic Brase (N) won by forfeit. 120- Hayden Munn (N) maj. dec. Carter Helgeson, 14-5. 126- Jayden Rinken (N) pinned Hayden Helgeson, 3:53. 132- Landon Price (L) pinned Luke Zwanziger, :36. 138- Steve Brandenburg (L) maj. dec. Tyler Zimmer, 12-3. 144- Devon Blanchand (N) maj. dec. Caleb Skogen, 12-4. 150- Aiden Gelner (N) dec. Austin Stene, 5-1. 157- Jackson Carey (N) pinned Eli Smith, :59. 165- Beau Kaufman (L) dec. Dylan Blanchard, 4-1.

Wapsie Valley 35, Lake Mills 32

190- Drew Lansing (W) dec. Grunhovd, 7-2. 215- Hanna (L) pinned Hayden Ryherd, :34. 285- Derek Hilsenbeck (W) pinned Jakobe Anderson, 1:59. 106- Kaiden Belinsky (W) won by forfeit. 113- Oldenkamp (L) pinned Sawyer Krall, 1:40. 120- Landon Frost (W) dec. C. Helgeson, 4-0. 126- Brody Kleitsch (W) tech. fall Royce Peterson, 16-1. 132- H. Helgeson (L) maj. dec. Wally Kaufman, 10-2. 138- Price (L) pinned Dallas Tisue, :49. 144- Brandenburg (L) pinned Cadyn Dana, 1:39. 150- Easton Krall (W) dec. Cody Cox, 7-2. 157- Kanen Decker (W) pinned Stene, 1:26. 165- Garrett Miller (W) dec. Garrett Ham, 5-4. 175- Kaufman (L) maj. dec. Brock Kleitsch, 10-2. 

Hinton 33, Lake Mills 23

215- Hanna (L) maj. dec. Reese Stokes, 17-6. 285- Tyler Chasteen (H) pinned Anderson, :22. 106- open. 113- Oldenkamp (L) pinned Quentin Smith, 1:06. 120- C. Helgeson (L) pinned Evan Stahl, 1:20. 126- H. Helgeson (L) dec. Nicholas Lindley, 5-0. 132- Ethan Sachau (H) dec. Price, 8-6 ot. 138- Brandenburg (L) maj. dec. Tommy Tanner, 16-7. 144- Gage Morgan (H) dec. Skogen, 5-2. 150- Mark Gant (H) dec. Cox, 9-6. 157- Brogan Lake (H) dec. Ham, 7-5. 165- Jackson Kounkel (H) dec. Kaufman, 4-3. 175- Gabe Anderson (H) pinned Kjeldahl, 3:22. 190- Jacob Bishop (H) pinned Grunhovd, 2:28. 

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