Duda has his eyes on second state title in 2020
BROKEN BOW - Lathan Duda of Broken Bow reached the pinnacle of any high school wrestler’s career a season ago when he was able to have his handheld high as the best wrestler at 182 pounds in Class C. On top of that, he was able to complete the perfect season at 58-0.
“Once it hit me that I won a state title it was like a black-out moment,” Duda said. “All the hard work I put in during the past and what I had planned out came true. Then seeing my teammate Casey Faulkenberry win made it even more special.”
This year Duda plans on building off the success from a season ago by being an even more dominant wrestler than he was a season ago. His goal is to win by fear and intimidation over his opponents.
“I think I am just more physically and mentally tough than a lot of my opponents,” Duda said. “This year my plan is to be more dominant and more relentless and make it where my opponents don’t want to step out on the mat with me.”
This season he hopes to break the school record for takedowns while also going undefeated once again.
“My goal is to break the school record for most takedowns in a season,” Duda said. “I also want to go undefeated again and have a remarkable year like last season.”
Duda believes he has gotten to the point where he is at in wrestling because of the great coaches he has had throughout the years. He has also been involved in the sport since he was in Pre-K.
“Wrestling is not a sport where you can immediately hop out on the mat and know what you’re doing,” Duda said. “Wrestling is a sport where you need to
start young or learn from someone who knows what they are doing.”
Besides having high individual goals, Duda also has very high standards for the team this year. They finished ninth at state last season but added some very solid wrestlers to the team in Cyrus and Conner Wells from Anselmo Merna. This should help them be very competitive in Class C this season.
“Having those two and Skeeter Campbell, Casey Faulkenberry, Keifer Anderson, and all the other state qualifiers back from last season is just going to help us tremendously and help us push the limits even farther and make history for Broken Bow.”
After high school, Duda already committed to wrestle at North Dakota State. He is relishing this opportunity and stated it took a lot of work to get to this point.
“It’s really exciting for me because not everybody gets the opportunity to be a Division I wrestler and athlete,” Duda said. “It took a lot of time and preparation to get to that point.”
While at North Dakota State he plans to get a degree in Human Sciences. His goal with that degree is either to become a physical therapist or study anesthesiology.