Injury, illness, and a number eight seed at 157 lbs. in Class 2A did not deter Greene County senior Brent Dennhardt as he won a wrestling State title on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Dennhardt became the sixth individual to be a wrestling State Champion in the 60 seasons of the Jefferson-based program and he’s the only one to win a title without being undefeated in that season, finishing with a 29-2 record.

He missed his entire freshman season due to concussion issues, then placed eighth at State as a sophomore. He qualified for State as a junior, but did not place in the top eight, then dropped down a weight class as a senior to 157. Dennhardt missed the first month of the season due to a severe ankle sprain, then missed time in January due to illness.

Despite just two losses in the regular season, he was seeded eighth in the 24 person field at State. He defeated wrestlers seeded numbers 9, 1, 4, and 6 en route to going 4-0 in the tournament and winning his first high school State title. A 7-1 win in the quarterfinals over number one seeded Lucas Kral of Garner-Hayfield-Ventura put him into the semifinals vs. Algona’s Tate Slagle, who lost in the semifinals in 2023 to the Rams’ Mc Kinley Robbins, who won two titles and was a finalist all four years of high school. Slagle led 3-0 early, but Dennhardt came back late in the match for a 5-4 victory putting him into the finals. There, he downed fellow Heart of Iowa Activities Conference wrestler Tucker Wheeler of PCM (Monroe), where he secured a 5-1 win. During this season he defeated 2A wrestlers that finished second, third, fourth, fifth, and eighth at 157 lbs.

The Rams had a fifth place finish at 165 lbs. from sophomore Degan Miller. The Greene County program had both Dennhardt and Miller in semifinals matches, marking the sixth straight year one or more Rams have placed sixth or higher at State Tournaments.