The slideshow of photos above were taken by senior Ashley Ruden at Wrestling State Finals Feb. 22.
A Lifetime of Preparation Pays off
By Ashley Ruden
Senior Trey Ryan is a four-sport athlete but he has been chasing the dream of being on top of the podium ever since he was a little boy. Becoming a State champ isn’t easy; it’s a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and hard work. After four years of being a state qualifier Trey finally became a gold medalist.
In February, Trey was a 170-pounder Iowa State Wrestling qualifier. He breezed through the first two rounds and in the semis he faced an opponent he had lost to earlier in the season, Adam Drain of Mediapolis. This time he came out on top with a score of 6-2.
After falling short and getting silver last year, Trey was ready for his final senior match. “I just kept working hard in the room and kept doing what the coaches told me to do, and just had to pound it through the season,” said Trey. Going into the finals Trey’s strategy was to score and to score often, “because if you’re scoring than the other guy can’t score,” said Trey. He had stuck to his plan and came out of the match on top with a win by major over Tyler Lutes of BCLUW.
Trey not only has accomplished his goal of being State Champion; he broke several records along the way. Trey set the record of career pins with 86, passing Matt Kroul’s (`04) 79 career pins. Trey is tied for most pins in a season with 26 with Matt Kroul, Devon Gonzalez (`07) and Nelson Jerabek (`09). It doesn’t stop there; he set the record for the most wins in a season with 47 and he is first in career wins the 157 and a State Champion. “It feels great standing on the number one spot this year, definitely way better than last year,” said Trey.
Trey started chasing his dream when he was 6 years old. Trey’s older brother Jacob Ryan (`07) has always had a big impact on his wrestling career. Trey has loved watching Jake wrestle and even wrestling with him. “I’m striving to do what he did because he had a great career too,” said Trey. Jake and Trey aren’t the only wrestlers in the family; their dad Dave (`85) had wrestled for Mount Vernon High School too. The Ryans have three more wrestlers coming up throughout the years; not only will they have Jake to look up too but they will have Trey as well.
Trey first started wrestling when his parents entered him into pee wee wrestling; he continued with that program until he got older, then he got into little kids wrestling club. Trey has also had experiences with local wrestling tournaments and several AAU State Tournaments. After that Trey was old enough to start wrestling in middle school. He wrestled in seventh and eighth grade. He continued his wrestling career in high school; he wrestled all four years of his high school career.
Wrestling isn’t like any other high school sport. “It’s all on you, if you screw up it’s no one else’s fault, you can’t blame it on anyone else. It’s very individual,” said Trey. Being a wrestler you always need to have a good mentality going into wrestling and meets. Unlike some guys Trey doesn’t have a pre-match ritual, but he has worn the same shirt before every match since fourth grade.
Throughout high school Trey wrestled at four different weights 135, 145, 160 and 170. Although he never cut a lot of weight, the hardest part for him was not to drink a lot of liquids. “When you cut a lot of weight it, you don’t really think about wrestling, you just think about cutting the weight, it makes you not like the sport,” he said.
With eight siblings: Jacob, Emily, Sarah, Libby, Paul, Lauren, Henry and Michael,
Trey gets a ton of support. From his brother and all of his siblings cheering him on, to his dad giving him some good tips and helping him because he knows a lot about the sport, and to his mom. “She usually helps make all of my meals, so that’s pretty great too,” says Trey.
Trey has had a very successful high school wrestling career. Trey made it to the state tournament his freshman year, and unfortunately he did not place. Trey finished his sophomore year finishing sixth at the State Tournament. His junior year he made it to State again. Trey made it to the finals but fell short of the gold medal placing second. Preparing for the 2014 season Trey had his mind set on what he wanted, he was going for the gold. Nothing was going to stop him. “It was always my goal to be on top and to be the best in the state,” said Trey. Throughout the 2013-2014 season Trey was ranked in various spots. He has worked hard in and out of the wrestling room to accomplish these achievements.
