Brance Simms wants to send his school out with a state championship. Top ranked at 112 pounds in class 1A, Simms opened the state tournament with an 8-0 win over fourth rated Jason Crosby from Eddyville-Blakesburg.

Simms says Crosby was “pretty good” and he says it is hard to have a good kid right off the bat, but he doesn’t really care who he gets.

Simms wants to win a state title for Twin River Valley high school which is closing at the end of the school year.

“It’d be amazing, be the coolest thing probably I’ve ever done in my whole life,” Simms says. Simms finished fifth as a freshman and second a year ago. He is sporting new blonde locks for the tournament. He says he died his hair that way because his teammates were doing it.