Hawkeye Wrestling Club’s Spencer Lee dominates field for men’s freestyle gold medal at ranking series tournament

Spencer Lee has already experienced international success.

The Olympic silver medalist and age-level World champion produced a strong start to this year.

Lee rolled the competition and captured the 57-kilogram gold medal in men’s freestyle Wednesday at the Muhamet Malo Ranking Series in Tirana, Albania. The Hawkeye Wrestling Club standout has captured titles in three ranking series events and second straight this month, winning the Zagreb Open in Croatia.

Lee defeated all four opponents by technical fall, including a 10-0 win over United World Wrestling’s Ramiz Gamzatov in just 1:28 of the final.

In the semifinal, Lee gave up the first four-point move but stormed back after a restart. Lee dropped in on a single for a takedown and locked up a leg-lace for six turns and a 14-4 match termination over Germany’s Horst Lehr. Lee opened with a 10-0 win over India’s Atish Todkar and added a 15-4 technical fall over Georgia’s Roberti Dingashvili. Two of his matches ended in the first minute and only one reached the second period.

Teammate Austin DeSanto earned bronze at 61 kg. He notched three consecutive decisions before dropping a 5-0 decision to World and Olympic champion Zavar Uguev. DeSanto closed with an 8-0 shutout of former Ohio State All-American Nathan Tomasello.

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