Marching forward: KWLPG's Lucas Lenz is the 2025 Mitchell Republic boys wrestler of the year

KIMBALL, S.D. — Little has stood in the way of Lucas Lenz from wrestling.

For the little that has, Lenz had big hurdles to overcome.

A sledding accident at age 8 while beginning to get acclimated with the sport resulted in both a lacerated kidney and spleen, requiring multiple surgeries. A wrist injury as a sophomore from football delayed the beginning of his wrestling season for Kimball/White Lake/Platte-Geddes until there were three weeks before the state tournament, only to injure it again once he qualified.

Lenz has also wrestled the last two state tournaments with heavy hearts following his aunt Tara’s death in February 2024 after a three-year battle with ovarian cancer and his uncle John’s unexpected death in January.

Even in dual matches, Lenz battles a multitude of nerves felt before stepping on the wrestling mat, regardless if he wrestled well the match before. In a competitive Wildkats wrestling room, one constant pushes Lenz to perform at his best: the support of his family.

“I’m doing it for my family,” Lenz said. “I didn’t always have the most motivation in wrestling. My brothers were probably the ones who overall convinced me to do wrestling. … They like to see me be successful.”

Following in the footsteps of older brothers Carter and Caden, both former KWLPG wrestlers, Lucas established his own path in the sport, finishing his six-year prep career with a 166-41 match record and three podium finishes at the Class B state wrestling tournament. Over his last three seasons, Lenz was 94-9 and finished on the podium twice at state, wrestling at 165 pounds in both instances. From the start of the 2024 state tournament, where he finished as the runner-up, Lenz won 46 of his last 47 matches.

This year included a championship, in dominating fashion. Completing a 43-0 senior season and closing his prep career with the Class B 165-pound title, Lucas Lenz was chosen as the 2025 Mitchell Republic boys wrestler of the year, receiving all four first-place votes. The award was selected by the newspaper's sports staff via a point-based voting system that awards five points to the top wrestler, four points to second on the ballot and so on.

Other wrestlers receiving consideration were Winner teammates Apollo Willuweit and Karson Keiser, Wessington Springs/Woonsocket/Wolsey-Wessington’s Holden Havlik, Wagner’s Gannon Knebel and McCook Central/Montrose’s Landon Flogstad.

As Lenz began to understand the intricacies of wrestling, he didn’t quite grasp the technical aspects of the sport right away

Throughout his middle school years, Lenz found himself competing for a varsity roster spot on the Wildkats during the season and often found himself wrestling in junior-varsity matches when possible to gain experience. When taught a particular move or set of moves during practice at the time, recalling instruction proved to be difficult.

“I know being in practice with the older kids helped, but I would struggle to pick up on moves,” Lenz said. “We’d get taught a move and I’m back to work on it with my practice partner and I wouldn’t know what I was doing. It was freshman and sophomore year when I really picked up on this sport.”

The competition also taught Lenz how to be mentally tough in a sport as physical as wrestling, knowing each match comes down to how he executes his best moves against the opponent’s best. Seeing KWLPG’s success as a team on the mat along with teammates’ individual accomplishments spurred Lenz on to keep marching forward.

“I think having the competition around him made him better,” KWLPG head coach Thomas Konechne said. “The combination of having successful teammates and the big brothers in the wrestling room is what really drove him in my eyes. He saw a lot of success and it maybe drove him to ultimately be a state champion.”

With all the planning and work Lenz did during practice, he still had to fight a multitude of nerves before and during matches depending on how they played out, regardless of who he was facing. As success started to come, the nervousness stayed as he continued to wrestle, making Lenz find ways to cope while also trying to execute his game plan. Once he started running up the score on his opponent, it made him more comfortable on the mat.

“I focus on what moves I’m going to do in the match and that kind of helps zone that part out,” Lenz said. “I’ll have nerves all the way up until the final whistle, but if I’m up and know I’m most likely going to win, then the nerves kind of go away for a while.

On his way to becoming a state champion in his senior season, Lenz has had his share of heartbreak, both on and off the wrestling mat.

Lenz’s season as an eighth-grader ended with a tough loss at the Region 3B tournament despite having the ability then to make it to the state tournament, according to Konechne. Reaggravating his wrist injury as a sophomore while wrestling in the consolation bracket at state, Lenz attempted to forge ahead, but having his match end injury default left him devastated.

With each loss, it’s helped Lenz grow himself to be a better person, learning about how wrestling is more than a sport. The losses also began to fuel his desire to end the season on the top step of the state wrestling podium, finding the motivation to perform for those who give him the most support each day.

“As long as they have a close, tight-knit group around them, that’s what builds character,” Konechne said. “He’s learned from the heartaches, he’s been able to make himself better … dealing with those tough situations over the course of his career, he was determined from day one this year and wanted to finish on top.”

Following the loss of close family members for Lenz along with teammates and cousins Johnny and Vincent the past two years, each season was put into perspective, learning a valuable lesson transferable to the wrestling mat, regardless of the outcome of the match.

“I learned that I could work harder,” Lenz said. “You can always do more and that’s kind of how practices have to go. For practice, conditioning or whatever we’re doing, you actually have to be pushing yourself and don’t look like you’re doing something.”

Lenz focused this season on taking advantage of the new takedown and near-fall scoring rules, using his hips for leverage and to stay upright against an opponent who tried to cut underneath at the legs to attempt a takedown. He’s also used the pressure to wear down his opponents, leading to results.

Over the season, Lenz recorded 87 takedowns against only being taken down twice, attributing both instances to “silly” mistakes on his end. Lenz also recorded 26 pins and seven wins by technical fall wrestling to his style of feeling out opponents at the beginning of matches, establishing control of the match.

“It sounds weird sometimes, but you just have to feel it out and you can get people reacting and your shots are going to be there,” Lenz said. “If you can control people on their feet, you can make them move where you want to go without muscling them.”

Despite Lenz’s accomplishments on the wrestling mat, a state championship eluded him, finishing as the runner-up in 2024 at 165 pounds. Focusing on his side of the bracket after qualifying for the state tournament, Lenz needed a first-period pin, a 12-1 major decision and a third-period technical fall to reach the championship match.

Facing region adversary Wyatt Anderson of Parkston, Lenz used his own feelings as a junior a year ago in the same spot to take advantage of how Anderson was feeling this season. Knowing he had to give the match everything, Lenz secured the first takedown en route to an 11-3 major decision, achieving his goal of winning a title.

“It was a great feeling knowing that all the hard work had paid off and falling up short is one of the worst feelings ever,” Lenz said of his reaction after the match. “I didn’t want to feel that again. This year definitely felt a lot better than the year before.”

“Everything he’s achieved, he’s earned,” Konechne added. “He’s been a leader for us in our program and hardly ever missed a day working on forearms, grip strength and other extra stuff before practice. He understood what’s expected of him and I’m very proud of him.”

Lenz’s wrestling days are now behind him, as he’ll study to become an electrician at Mitchell Technical College beginning in the fall with the plan of staying in the Kimball area longterm. He also envisions himself returning to the sport in a different capacity down the line.

Not lost on him are all the memories made throughout his time spent on the mat, taking away strong lessons that will help him march forward, wherever the path takes Lenz.

“You can take away the mental strength of wrestling as far as staying disciplined in your life,” Lenz said, “And just knowing I can take out of it all the friends I’ve made and the relationships I’ve kept with people is nice.”

Here’s a look at the other wrestlers who received consideration, with their point totals in parentheses:

Apollo Willuweit, Winner (13): Willuweit made the most of his first appearance at state as an eighth grader, going undefeated at 44-0 en route to the 106-pound title, defeating Bon Homme/Avon’s Rvyr Larson in the title match by a 4-2 decision. Willuweit picked up 21 pins and 10 wins by decision.

Karson Keiser, Winner (12): Following in the footsteps of his older brother Kaden, Karson was the 138-pound champion, going 51-1. He finished his senior season ranked fifth in the state in both wins by major decision (8) and in takedowns (151). Keiser also recorded 17 pins and 16 victories by technical fall.

Holden Havlik, WSWWW (10): Havlik battled back from an offseason hamstring tear to one-up his result at state from a year ago, winning the title at 215 pounds by a 9-3 decision over Philip/Kadoka Area/Wall’s Jensen Fitch. Attending Northern State University in the fall to play football, Havlik concludes his prep wrestling career with a 33-3 senior season.

Gannon Knebel, Wagner (4): Taking advantage of the new scoring rules, Knebel was second in the state with 29 technical falls and 68 four-point nearfalls. He also didn’t lose to an opponent in-state until the championship match, a narrow 4-1 decision in favor of Canton’s Teague Granum, who went undefeated. Knebel was 45-2 as a junior with his second consecutive runner-up finish at 190 pounds.

Landon Flogstad, McCook Central/Montrose (1): Flogstad was 55-5 wrestling at 120 pounds, ultimately finishing in second as the top-seeded wrestler in the class at the state tournament to Canton’s Carter Kendrick. The Montrose senior recorded 26 of his victories via pinfall.