Lee strikes gold again
By Craig Sesker It is very difficult to imagine Spencer Lee losing one age- group wrestling match. Let alone two.
But that's exactly what happened at May's UWW Cadet Nationals freestyle competition in Akron, Ohio. Even though Lee was a returning Cadet World champion, he dropped back-to-back finals bouts to another top young star in Daton Fix.
Fix landed the 2015 Cadet World Team spot at 119 pounds. The next morning, U.S. Assistant National Coach Brandon Slay was on the phone with Lee. Slay’s message: You can still be a World champion this year. "After Spencer lost to Daton Fix, I encouraged Spencer to apply for a Junior World Team Trials wild-card slot at 50 kg,” said Slay, an Olympic gold medalist. “I believed Spencer would be more hungry than ever to redeem that loss, make the Junior World Team and become a Junior World champion. Spencer saw some great things after that loss which drove him to reach the peak. More wrestlers and humans need to learn that les- son.”
In what is an amazing and improbable story, Lee bounced back in an incredible and unthinkable way. Lee blitzed four opponents by technical fall by a combined 40- 0 score to win June's Junior World Team Trials in Madison, Wis. He then elevated his game even more with a phenomenal performance at the Junior World Championships on Aug. 15 in Salvador, Brazil. Lee outscored his five opponents by a whopping 54-4 margin, all by technical fall, to strike gold. He beat two Cadet World champions.
Lee scored a stunning 44-second, 10-0 technical fall over returning Cadet World champion Ali Reza Goodarzi of Iran in the 110-pound Junior World finals. Lee aggressively fired in on an early leg attack before locking up an airtight leg lace. He then powered to four consecutive turns to quickly finish off Goodarzi.
An exuberant Lee raised both arms in victory and then shared an emotional embrace with Slay.
“I don’t really celebrate that much – usually I just get my hand raised,” Lee said. “But this was a big win and Coach Slay helped me so much. If it wasn’t for Coach Slay, I wouldn’t have gotten that leg lace. We worked on that during the whole camp.” Slay was impressed with Lee’s efforts at Junior Worlds. “To be a World champion, it is really important to go from
takedowns to turns,” Slay said. “Spencer has done it a lot in the past, but he specifically did it in every one of his matches. That is what separates him from the other guys. He took people down and then went right into his lace or his gut. He kept the same focus in the finals.”
Not bad for a guy who's just 16 years old and was wrestling in the 17-20 age category at Junior Worlds. Lee was eligible to compete at Junior Worlds since he turns 17 this calendar year. The two losses to Fix at UWW Cadet Nationals definitely lit a fire under the already driven Lee.
“I learned that I had some weaknesses and that I needed to make some improvements,” Lee said. “I learned that I can’t stop wrestling. I need to stay focused and keep scoring points. I was up in both of those matches and I stopped wrestling. “When adversity punches you in the face, instead of falling
20 USA Wrestler
Spencer Lee captured a Junior World freestyle title a year after winning a Cadet World title. T.R. Foley photo.
backward you fall forward. You just keep moving on and punch adversity right back in the face.”
Lee has thrived under the expert tutelage of his club coach,
Jody Strittmatter, an NCAA runner-up for Iowa. Strittmatter coaches Lee with the highly successful Young Guns club in Pennsylvania. “Spencer is so mature for his age,” Strittmatter said. “He is so intellectual. You teach him something and he picks it up quickly. I’ve never seen a wrestler pick up technique like he does. “Spencer is very hard on himself. He loves to challenge him- self. If he doesn’t have a good practice, no one has to yell at him. I think that’s what makes him so special. He just sets such a high standard for himself.”
Lee still has two years of high school left, but college recruiters are already waging a fierce recruiting battle to secure his services. Iowa, Penn State, Ohio State and Arizona State are among the top schools courting Lee. “Spencer is certainly gifted, but his attitude and love for wrestling, life and learning are the attributes that make him so successful,” said U.S. Assistant National Coach Bill Zadick, a past World champion. “As long as that flame continues to burn in Spencer, I see no limit to what he can accomplish.” Lee's dominating win at Junior Worlds even caught the atten-
tion of America's best wrestler, Olympic gold medalist and two- time World champion Jordan Burroughs. Shortly after Lee won Junior Worlds, Burroughs fired out a short message on his popular Twitter account @alliseeisgold: Spencer Lee is the greatest wrestler alive. Lee hasn't quite reached that level yet, but he certainly is well on his way. All Spencer Lee has seen is gold at his last two World Championships. And the best may be yet to come. “I want to be an Olympic champion and a World champion,” Lee said. “I know those are everyone’s goals, but I really want to win those.”
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