DES MOINES — This year marked the 48th procession of medal winners known as the Grand March, which officially kicks off the start of championship Saturday at the State Wrestling Tournament. All three classes parade before a sellout crowd at the Wells Fargo Arena by weight class. With 14 divisions and eight medalists in each, some 336 wrestlers out of the 672 who qualified for the state tourney make the procession. Over 8,000 compete in high school wrestling in Iowa.
The first of the seven area school medalists to enter the arena was Perry’s Kaleb Olejniczak (113 pounds). Following Olejniczak were Perry’s Zachary Thompson (120), Panorama’s George Appleseth (132), Tyler Van Houten (152, holding the sign) and Gunnar Grunsted (170) and Woodward-Granger’s Tanner Vermaas (182) and Cody Fisher (195), all experiencing a moment they will doubtless not soon forget.