Brenden Baker might cut his shoulder-length blond hair after the state wrestling tournament next week, but he's got bigger concerns right now than trimming his flowing locks.

Baker is wrestling with a broken finger and a sore back, so getting a haircut can wait. And he's certainly not going to cut it before the state tournament, because that might be bad luck.

"No, we're going to leave it alone," the Cedar Rapids Jefferson senior said Saturday after winning the 120-pound title at the Class 3A district meet at Jefferson. "I've lasted this long. It's been almost a year."

Baker had fairly short hair last year, but his last haircut was about 362 days ago.

"It was actually the day before we left for state last year. So on Wednesday it will be a full year," he said.

He kind of likes his hairstyle - "It's different" - so he's not sure if he'll visit a barbershop or stylist in the near future.

"Maybe," he said. "The state title comes first. We'll see what happens after that."

Baker captured the 120-pound title with a wild 18-14 victory over Bradan Birt of Western Dubuque in the finals. When it was over, Baker put his right index finger to his mouth and tried to hush Western Dubuque fans who had been rooting against him.

"I wasn't going to make much of a reaction," he said, "but then I looked up and I saw about 30 grown men flipping me off.

"I shouldn't have done it," he said about putting his finger to his lips.

"It didn't look good on my part. I made my school look not so good, but it was one of those emotional things and I couldn't really control it. I want to apologize to everyone."

Baker broke the pinkie finger on his right hand in a dual meet against Dubuque Hempstead Jan. 7 and he's battled a muscular problem in his back since early in the season, but he's stayed in the lineup and fought the pain. He tweaked the back again in the finals Saturday, but kept wrestling after a short break.

He missed several meets at the start of the 2014-15 season with four broken toes and he's also dealt with a broken thumb and shoulder problems during his prep career. "It's been a battle," he said. "I've been pretty injury-prone."

Eight Metro grapplers won district titles at Jefferson and qualified for the state tournament at Wells Fargo Arena next week in Des Moines. Six other Metro wrestlers punched their ticket as a district runner-up.

Garrett Kubovec of Kennedy barely worked up a sweat in the 170-pound finals when he pinned fifth-ranked Brandon Haas of Hempstead in just 15 seconds. Kubovec flexed his muscles and leaped into the arms of Kennedy Coach Dennis Hynek in celebration.

"It was total adrenaline," he said. "A lot of hard work the past few weeks and preparing for these different kids' styles. It was a hard district with four or five ranked guys going in. I knew it was going to be a battle to get out of districts."

Kubovec, who is ranked No. 7, beat 10th-ranked Luke Kluesner of Western Dubuque in the semifinals before sticking Haas in the finals.

Kubovec was a star linebacker for the Kennedy football team that played for the Class 4A state title this past fall and now he's heading to the state tournament in another sport.

"It's been awesome. It's been a fun ride," he remarked. "Football was awesome. We got all the way down to the state finals, and now the first time that I'm going to state in wrestling. It's a great feeling."

Hempstead won the district title with 212 points and Western Dubuque was second with 201, followed by the parade of Metro wrestlers.

Kennedy finished third in the team standings and qualified five athletes for state. Nolan Hromidko (126) and Kubovec (170) won titles, while Logen Rodriguez (152), Ben Sarasin (160) and Dalles Jacobus (220) placed second.

The Linn-Mar Lions finished fourth in the standings and qualified four wrestlers for Des Moines. Alex Streicher (138), Shea Hartzler (160) and Brayden Schultz (195) won titles and Johnny Clymer (145) placed second.

The Jefferson J-Hawks finished fifth in the standings and also qualified four wrestlers. Joseph Sibomana (113), Baker (120) and Kyle Briggs (152) claimed titles and Nick Dreckman (182) took second.

Will Foreman of Washington placed second at 126 pounds and qualified for the state tournament.