DES MOINES -- As Kael Cook stepped off the mat for the final time in his high school career early Saturday afternoon, he looked into the stands at the Casey's Center one last time.
And then tears began to stream down the Notre Dame-West Burlington/Danville senior's face.
Cook didn't get what he came for at the boys state wrestling tournament. But he did win his final match, pinning Aiden Hippen of Clear Lake in 4 minutes, 41 seconds to finish seventh at 150 pounds in Class 2A and polish off a 46-3 senior season.
It didn't take long to sink in that it was all over for high school wrestling. Thirteen years of training and getting ready, putting thousands of miles on the family car and hundreds of miles in a school bus with his best friends.
In the blink of an eye, it was all over.
"Obviously I came here I was highly seeded. I was expecting and I wanted a lot more than what I got out of it. But ending with a win, something to look forward to, that's always nice," Cook said. "As you're walking off the mat for the last time, you're looking in the crowd and seeing all the stars and everything. It all starts to get to you. You realize 12, 13 years of my life I've poured into coming to this tournament. It feels great to end with a win, but I definitely know I left a lot out there on the mat."
Cook was leading his quarterfinal match against Kameron Kremer of Independence when he suddenly found himself on his back, a position he hasn't been in often the last four years.
Cook said coming back after that loss was one of the most difficult things he has done.
"It was so tough. After being up in the quarters and then getting put to my back and getting pinned, I was absolutely heartbroken," Cook said. "Staying on the front side I would have kept pursuing what I've wanted to do all year. All of a sudden on on the back sudden and bam, I have to win this match to even place and win bam, bam, bam to keep battling to see how high I could get. It was definitely a really big roadblock to try to go over, but I try to put it aside and tell myself to wrestle. I've been doing this for so long. Just go out there and wrestle."
Cook's performance at state left him wanting more, and changed his perspective on his future.
"I want to go to college. I think I'm going to wrestle," Cook said. "Earlier this year I was half and half. Coming here reminds me how much this stuff does mean to me. Just how much of an impact this sport does have on my life. There's just too much talent, too much effort, too much time put into it to just walk away."
"He wrestled exceptionally well," ND-WB coach Bill Plein said of Cook. "That was the kid he beat in the last seconds last year. He obviously has improved quite a bit."
It was a tough two days for the defending Class 2A state champion Nikes, who finished tied for 11th place in the Class 2A team standings with 60 1/2 points.
On Friday, ND-WB/Danville went 1-5 in the quarterfinals and 0-1 in the semifinals.
On Saturday, the Nikes went 0-3 in the consolation semifinals and 2-2 in the placement matches.
ND-WB/Danville sophomore Kohen Dietzenbach took fifth at 113, sophomore Rowan Berndt was sixth at 120 and senior Colt Boyles was sixth at 132.
Dietzenbach, like Cook, ended his season with a win, pinning Lucas Peters of West Delaware in 4:14 in the fifth-place match.
Unlike Cook, Dietzenbach has two more years to right the wrongs and work his way to the top of the podium.
"I came up here confident. I was coming off a really good season. I lost a couple matches I shouldn't have. I was overthinking it. I was scared to get to my offense. I was scared to shoot and get into my attacks. I missed a lot of opportunities to score and ended up losing in the quarters," Dietzenbach said. "My final match going for fifth I just went out there no cares. What's the worse that can happen? I actually opened up and wrestled the best match I wrestled the whole tournament."
Boyles saw his career come to a close with a pair of losses.
Carter Schmauss of Crestwood came away with a 1-0 victory, scoring an escape in the second period to win the consolation semifinals match.
Boyles lost a 4-0 decision to Linden Phetxoumphone of Clarion-Goldfield-Dows in the fifth-place match.
Boyles ends the season with a 44-6 record.
Berndt had the toughest row to hoe of all. After advancing to the semifinals at 120, he lost his final three matches.
Berndt lost a heartbreaking 4-2 decision to Dylan Williamson of Van Meter in the semifinals on Friday night.
On Saturday, Berndt surrendered a late takedown and lost an 8-7 match to Levi Evans of Mount Pleasant in the consolation semifinals.
In the fifth-place match, Berndt dropped a 7-1 decision to Urijah Courter of West Marshall, whom he beat last week in the district finals.
Berndt ends the season with a 43-8 record.
"We left some points in the barn. For our seniors, this is a tough way to go out. For our younger kids -- they're all sophomores -- it's a learning experience to figure out what we can do to get better and how we need to be better in certain situations and go from there," Plein said. "It's something to build on. We'll take a couple days to lick our wounds, so to speak, and work to get better."
Notre Dame- West Burlington/Danville asst Coach Lee Lundvall (right) consoles Kael Cook on Saturday afternoon at the state wrestling tournament at the Casey's Center in Des Moines