Mc Kinley Robbins

In just two seasons of high school wrestling, Greene County sophomore McKinley Robbins has achieved what most in the Rams’ 55-year history of the sport could only dream about. He won the Class 2A 120 lbs. State Wrestling Championship on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines to cap a 34-0 season. Robbins becomes just the fourth Ram to win a State wrestling title, joining Dave Hagedorn in 1979, Eric Strawn ’82, and Will Thomsen ’94. All four title holders went undefeated in their championship season, but Robbins is the first that wasn’t a high school senior, and he joins Strawn as the only two to reach the finals twice. The title ended a 27-year drought for the program and Robbins is the first wrestling champion in the nine years the district has operated as Greene County. The title was also the first for head coach Zach Beekman, in his third season at that position.

Robbins, the number two seed, although the only unbeaten in the field of 16, defeated the top seed, junior Blaine Frazier (46-4) of Notre Dame/West Burlington/Danville, 7-5. Close throughout, Robbins pulled out the victory as he’s done so many times in the last month of the season against high level competition. He won 9-4 in Thursday’s opening round, then eeked out a 2-1 tie-breaker 1 victory in the quarterfinals vs. Jonathon Burnette of Spirit Lake Park, before getting a third period takedown in the third period of the semifinals to win 4-2 over Keaton Zeimet of Central, DeWitt. En route to the title, Robbins defeated the second, third, and sixth place finishers in the weight class.