Wanting to win motivates Lee, ready for state

No longer sitting on the fence about wrestling is Newton High junior Duncan Lee. He finally gave the sport a try as a sophomore, wrestling at 160 pounds and not winning a varsity match.

That did not discourage Lee. He found he loved the sport, which for him meant he had to work hard in the offseason.

“I wanted to win,” Lee said of his dedication to work in the offseason and during the season.

Lee’s work came to fruition Saturday at Ankeny Centennial High School. Though he came up short of a Class 3A district championship at 195 pounds. Lee qualified for the 2015 Iowa High School Class 3A State Wrestling Tournament.

He opens his first state tournament Thursday morning at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Lee takes a 34-10 record into the tournament. His opening-round opponent is Boris Petrusic (25-13) of Johnston.

"It's a great feeling to be going to state. I like my draw in the first match of the state. I've wrestled him before this season," Lee said.

Newton head coach Andy Swedenhjelm said Lee wrestled Petrusic the first weekend of the year, but Lee is a different wrestler than he was then.

"We're excited about the first match. Duncan has the right kind of attitude where he goes out and does what he can on the mat," Swedenhjelm said. "He doesn't get too intimidated by anyone."

Lee talked of his run through the district tournament last Saturday.

"District championship match, you obviously want to go out and win. I was hoping the kid I beat in the semifinal won the third-place match because I knew I had a challenge ahead of me in the final," Lee said.

Lee said the district championship match against Deion Mikesell of Southeast Polk wasn't a good one. Mikesell scored a technical fall, 17-2, at the 5:06 mark.

"But, I knew I was going to state so it took a little of the sting out of that," he said.

Lee opened the district tournament with a pin of Ethan Chipps of Ankeny Centennial in the quarterfinals. He said he knew he had to win the semifinal to have the opportunity to qualify for state.

The semifinal match was in Lee's words the quintessential big-guy match with neither he nor Devan Mann of Marshalltown doing much in the first period. Each scored a point on escapes in the second and third periods.

"He took a bad shot for a takedown and I scored a takedown with a front headlock to go up 3-1. He escaped then I tried to not get taken down. I took him down again right at the end when he made a desperation shot at a takedown," Lee said of a 5-2 win over Mann in the district semifinal.

A year ago, Lee wrestled at 160 pounds. He did not win a varsity match as a sophomore, which was his first year in the sport.

"I was on the fence about wrestling, but one of my baseball coaches encouraged me to go out for wrestling," Lee said. "We had a new coach last year, so I decided to go out. I liked it enough last year to come and put the work in during the offseason. It's been a lot of fun.

"Just wanting to win," Lee said was the main factor of his offseason work.

Lee is one of seven juniors in the Class 3A 195-pound weight class at the state tournament.

"You have to win matches at state. All the kids are good at state, so I'm going into this week with the attitude of one match at a time and wrestling my match," Lee said.

There are three state tournament returners in the Class 3A 195-pound division. Seniors Colin Kreiter of North Scott, Mikesell and Joe Brett of Dowling Catholic finished third, fifth and eighth in the weight division in the 2014 state tournament.

The 195-pound weight bracket features nine of the top 10 ranked wrestlers.

In Lee's side of the bracket are Kreiter, who is ranked No. 2 at 38-1. Kreiter wrestles Ryan Kenneally (34-13) of Epworth in the opening round. If Lee wins his opener, he will face the winner of Kreiter and Kenneally the quarterfinals. A loss puts Lee in the consolation side of the bracket.

Also in the bottom portion of the 16-man bracket is top-ranked Sam Cook (38-1) of Fort Dodge and No. 3-ranked Chris Thomas (43-5) of Lewis Central. Cook had Jordan Dedrick (25-7) of Waterloo West and Thomas takes on Kyle Salazar (25-13) of Oskaloosa in the first round.

Mikesell (25-8), who defeated Lee in the championship match of Saturday's Class 3A District 1 tournament, is ranked fourth in in the top half of the bracket. He takes on William White (17-23) of Des Moines East.

Fifth-ranked Chance Cary (37-13) of wrestles No. 8 Taylor Mehmen (32-7) of Prairie Cedar Rapids. Seventh-ranked Brett (21-10) takes on No. 9-ranked Jamir Moore (15-4) of Waverly-Shell Rock. Zach Haggstrom (38-11) of Glenwood is ranked No. 10 and wrestles Isaiah Cox (46-3) of Ottumwa.