Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Every wrestling season features a few instant success stories.

Freshmen that step into the varsity lineup and immediately standout.

That wasn’t the story for Solon senior Lucas Kampman.

“I don’t remember exactly what my freshman record was,” Kampman said with a laugh on Thursday. “It was not good.”

Wrestling is also a sport where hard work is essential and can trump talent over time.

That’s the script that Kampman has followed to success.

Three years after losing 37 times as a 126-pound freshman Kampman is 13-1, ranked fifth in Class 2A and a senior leader for the Spartans.

“I don’t know if Lucas would have seen himself wrestling at the level he is wrestling at three years ago,” Solon co-head coach Aaron Hadenfeldt said. “He got introduced to varsity wrestling pretty hard and got stuck in the varsity lineup and that struggle stuck with him. He’s the type of kid that if he has something that he doesn’t master he is going to work to try to attain that and that’s what he’s doing with wrestling and has made himself into a really dang tough wrestler.”

The wrestling success story for Kampman got a late start.

Unlike many wrestlers that take up the sport before elementary school Kampman didn’t start wrestling until junior high.

Kampman earned a spot in the varsity lineup as a freshman and went 17-37.

As the losses mounted that season Kampman admits he grew frustrated.

But rather than walk away from the sport Kampman did the opposite.

He vowed to spend more time than ever in the wrestling room.

“Honestly I hated it at times my freshman year because I was cutting weight and losing but at the end of the day, as much as it sucked it made me even more mad to be on my back,” Kampman said. “That’s what made me want to work harder and gave me the mentality that a guy might beat me but he’s not going to work harder than me.”

Kampman had a winning varsity record as a sophomore and then went 24-17 last season as a junior.

Throughout his junior season Kampman  saw the hard work paying off.

“My junior year I was really committed to working hard, doing something after every practice and working as hard as I possible could and feel like beat guys just by wearing them down,” Kampman said. “I was winning a few matches and started to see I could be a decent wrestler.”

This season Kampman has taken off.

His lone loss is to third-ranked Drake Collins of West Liberty in the finals of the Cliff Keen Independence Invitational.

Kampman has won seven consecutive matches since that loss after picking up a win via forfeit on Thursday in Solon’s 49-26 dual meet loss to Dyersville Beckman in Solon.

The more Kampman wrestles the better he seems to get.

“The biggest thing for me was just wrestling sense,” Kampman said. “I was getting stronger but I had no clue what I was doing and wrestling (coach) Ryan Osgood in the room and guys like Hayden (Taylor) and Gage (Marty) has made me a lot better technically and knowing what to do in situations.”

Kampman is ranked for the first time in his career and will be seeking his first state meet appearance next month.

Now a ranked wrestler he is still doing the same things and putting in the same extra work he did as a freshman.

“He asks questions, he gets done with a match and he wants to ask questions and go over the match and he’s the guy that gets an extra 10 takedowns in every single day after practice,” Hadenfeldt said. “He’ll grab Gage Marty and wrestle against Gage and he’s giving up 50 pounds and it doesn’t matter to him. His mindset is what sets him apart.”

Dyersville Beckman 49, Solon 26

106 – Jake Schmidt (DB) pinned Evan Burg 1:33

113 – Shawn Brunsman (DB) pinned Kyler Jessup 4:19

120 – Lawson Sinwell (SOL) won by forfeit

126 – Nick Schmidt (DB) pinned Jordan Schmidt 4:20

132 – Charlie Karam (SOL) tech. fall Riley White 17-0

138 – Cole Carney (SOL) won by forfeit

145 – Alex Hageman (DB) pinned Jackson Feuerbach 3:35

152 – Ryan Schlarmann (DB) dec. Kaden Lamm 3-2

160 – Conner Grover (DB) pinned David Karam 3:29

170 – Lucas Kampman (SOL) won by forfeit

182 – Ryan Funke (DB) major dec. Dade Altman 10-2

195 – Levi Feldman (DB) pinned Trevor Myers 3:55

220 – Owen Huehnergarth (DB) pinned Braydon Hoffman 1:15

285 – Gage Marty (SOL) dec. Jason Koopman 5-1

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