STILL ON TOP

 TOPEKA, KAN. -- Just two years after winning his second state wrestling title in the Iowa high school ranks, Kimballton native Evan Hansen is a national champion for the most dominant NAIA program in the country.
 Hansen, a redshirt freshman for Grand View University in Des Moines, claimed the 197-pound championship Saturday, March 4, at the 2017 NAIA Wrestling National Championships in Topeka, Kansas. Hansen, seeded third in his bracket, earned the title with a 9-7 overtime win against top-seeded Dalton Bailey of Life (Georgia) University.
 A 2015 graduate of Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton, Hansen was one of five Grand View national champions last weekend as the Vikings broke their own scoring record (234.5 points) to win the program’s sixth consecutive NAIA national team title (also an NAIA record). Grand View now boasts 29 champions in just nine years of competition.
 Hansen, who finished the season with a 27-4 record, cruised into Saturday’s final match following a pair of technical fall victories - 18-3 and 17-4 - and a 5-0 semifinal decision. He and teammate Josh Wenger (141 pounds) then became the first freshmen in program history to win national titles.