COLUMBUS — National Trail sophomore Peyton Lane concluded a successful season at the 81st Annual Ohio High School State Wrestling Tournament last weekend.
Lane, who finished the season 33-4, went 1-2 during the tournament to finish among the top 12 in the state at 132-pounds in Division III.
The tournament was held Thursday-Saturday, March 8-10, at the Jerome Schottenstein Center.
“Peyton’s a great kid. He’s a hard worker. We’ve had a real good season, a successful season. Both guys we’ve lost too are both high caliber kids,” Trail coach Bobby Clark said of Lane who entered the state tournament with a 32-2 record.
Lane, who transferred to National Trail from Illinois prior to his freshman year, is no stranger to success.
He was a top elementary and middle school wrestler in Illinois and was on target to reach state at the high school level in Ohio his freshman season before an injury derailed him.
“Last year he was wrestling well, but hurt his back and that ended his season,” Clark said. “I think if he would have been healthy he would have been here last year.”
Clark said Lane was ready for the big stage this year.
“He was ready. He was confident. He wasn’t looking past anyone. I can tell when he’s prepared and I felt like he was prepared,” he said. “He’s fought for his right to be here. He’s earned it.”
Lane opened the state tournament with a 9-7 loss to Parker Watson of Rocky River Lutheran on Thursday. In his second match, Lane scored an 8-0 decision over Noah Inboden of Nelsonville-York to keep his season alive.
On Friday morning, Lane had his season come to an end with a 10-4 loss to Aaron Kitts of Gallion Northmor.
Lane’s trip to state continued a recent Trail tradition of having a state qualifier almost every season for the past decade.
“We’ve always had fairly low numbers but we’ve been pretty successful,” Clark said.
What makes Lane’s success even more impressive is he was the only member of the Trail team for the majority of the season.
“It’s tough having one guy. It makes for long weekends. But I’ve enjoyed every bit of it. We started with higher numbers but they weed out, injuries and whatnot. It’s been team Peyton,” Clark said. “The boy knows success and he knows wrestling. That’s why I felt like I got lucky coming in my first year. I lost all these guys, but I still have Peyton though and here we are at the state level.”
“To be honest, I’ve done it my whole life. I’ve been chasing around partners,” Lane said of being a one-man team and having to practice at Eaton and Preble Shawnee to get reps in.
Lane said his goal was to reach the podium, something he fell one win shy of.
“I think my first match, I was nervous and that’s what got me. I felt I was at a super high the first match and it came back to hurt me,” he said. “I’ve been in this complex before, wrestling in big stages like this.”
