Athlete Profile: Brewster’s Duncan Breaks School Record

Participating in the Section 1 Division 1 wrestling tournament is certainly exciting, but it's even more exciting when you are able to break a school record doing it.

That’s what Brewster junior Jimmy Duncan accomplished at the wrestling tournament on Feb. 13 at Lincoln High School in Yonkers, when he set the school record for wins at 129. Duncan broke the school record of 128 victories, set by 2009 graduate Chris Gogatz, who now wrestles at Hunter College.

“At the time I was just trying to advance at the sectionals,” Duncan said. “Breaking Chris’s record was just part of the ride.”

It's fitting that the record Duncan would break belonged to Gogatz, because he was someone that Duncan looked up to while he was wrestling at Brewster.

“Chris was our captain and a great role model,” Duncan said. “What I learned from him is that anything is possible through hard work and dedication.”

Duncan has showed how dedicated he is to the sport by being a varsity starter since eighth grade and attending off-season wrestling camps at West Point.

That dedication paid off as Duncan tied the record with a first-period pin of Fox Lane’s Ari Faust in the opening round of the 119-pound bracket. Duncan said the key to the win was focus and getting the double-arm bar in early.

Then after losing in the quarterfinals in a heartbreaker in overtime to Ketcham’s Mark Settlembrino, Duncan came back to break the record in the consolation round.

He did it by beating Nyack’s Adit Thakur, taking him down with seconds left in a tied bout for a 5-3 victory. Duncan’s tournament ended when Harrison’s Gavin Menchel avenged an earlier season loss from the Shenenedehowa Invitational with a 5- 0 win.

“I like the fact that Jimmy never quits on the mat,” Brewster coach Tom Looby said. “He rarely gets pinned or even put to his back. I know I can count on him to go six minutes with anyone.”

Looby said that he expects Duncan to place in the top four, if not higher, in the sectionals next season. 

“I would really like to see him win a section title,” Looby said. “He will continue to improve on the all-time wins record and could quite possible hold that record for a long time.”

Having two grapplers like Duncan and Gogatz break the school record in wins just two years apart shows that the program is growing and headed in the right direction, according to Looby.

“We hope to continue to do well in the future and we have the opportunity to do so thanks to an outstanding pee wee and modified program,” Looby said. “Our coaching staff,  Tom Larm and Ed Mezger, has done a wonderful job. Jack Duncan is a  huge supporter of Brewster wrestling and we are not looking forward to Jimmy graduating. We also have very supportive parents that work together on fundraising and tournaments.”

Other interests

Besides wrestling, Jimmy Duncan is also a  varsity cross-country and track runner, second seat clarinet in the school’s wind ensemble and scholastically has been on the high honor roll since sixth grade.

Duncan is also a Boy Scout with Brewster’s Troop One, the Troop Historian, and a Life Scout working on his Eagle Scout Project, the historic renovation of the GAR statue at Electrozone Park.