West Fargo’s Brandon Metz, a three time North Dakota state champion at 285 pounds and currently ranked sixth in the nation by Flowrestling, took his act into hostile territory on Saturday night for a match up with Iowa AAA state champion Aaron Costello in “The War at West Gym.”  Costello is currently ranked twelfth in the country by Flo, and has committed to wrestle for the University of Iowa.

In the bout, Metz started fast with a beautiful toe-touch takedown at the edge of the mat.  On the restart, the NDSU signee locked up a cradle and horsed it over for two back points, nearly getting a fall before Costello rolled through it for a two point reversal of his own.  After some impressive top wrestling from Costello to finish the first period, Metz chose neutral to start the second with a  4-2 lead.  Neither wrestler scored in the second, and Costello chose down and escaped to cut the Metz lead to 4-3.  With the home Iowa crowd yelling for a stalling call that would tie the match, Metz pulled away with one more takedown at 1:30 of the third period.  One more Costello escape made the final score 6-4.

Metz was a member of Team Gadson for the dual.  Kyven Gadson was a NCAA champion for the Iowa State Cyclones in 2015.  In spite of Metz’s victory, team Gadson fell to team Cabell 30-16.