Wrestling is a way of life for the Earp family.
It’s really no wonder at all that Chandler High School junior Landon Earp went into it. His father, Shane, wrestled in high school, and his mother, Jaclyn, was a mat maid. The two run the Little League wrestling program in Chandler, where Landon comes to help.
“I was all for it,” Jaclyn said, referring to when Landon said he wanted to wrestle.
All those years of hitting the mat have finally paid off, with Landon getting his 100th varsity win on Feb. 1.
“It’s a milestone. It’s hard because wrestling season… it’s not a whole lot of matches every season, and you have to be pretty dominant through each season you step through, and with him doing it as a junior, I mean, hehadtohavehadthekind of step up his freshman season,” Shane said.
Shane added that it’s not an easy milestone to hit, and most who do don’t typically meet it until their senior year.
Landon sits at 100 wins and 25 losses for his entire high school career. For his junior year alone, he’s at 32 and 1, with nine tech falls and 23 falls. He has qualified for state every year of high school so far, and his highest place was fourth in his freshman year.
He currently sits in third for his weight class (113) in 3A, another accomplishment as it’s one of the toughest classes to wrestle in. Shane said from 113 to about 135 has a lot of good athletes.
Landon has been wrestling for 11 years. He said that he started because his dad wrestled in high school. For the junior, the mental game is the hardest part of the sport, but it’s something he pushes through with help.
“I have really good support and they help me through everything. I just kind of pushed through all of it,” he said.
When he’s on the mat, Landon said he doesn’t focus on anything else. It’s all about being on the mat and how he wrestles. For now, he’s focusing on the last few weeks of the season. Regionals is coming up in about two weeks, and then it’s state.
“I do really want a state championship,” he admitted.
Landon also doesn’t plan on stopping after his senior year next year. He hopes to go on and wrestle at Oklahoma State University or another D1 school. He also encourages other young wrestlers to go to practice.
“It’s just fun being at all the practices and it’s just a great time,” he said.
Shane, who coached Landon until he started wrestling for the high school, said he’s picked up everything pretty quickly and has a really good wrestling knowledge.
“Probably three or four years ago, kind of when he got into school wrestling, I really kind of took a step back and let him go on his own,” he said. “I do kind of help him here and there when I can see things that he may not be seeing or understanding, but he’s really taken it on himself to stay disciplined and learn the sport.”
These are qualities seconded by Wrestling Coach Franklin Ward. He said that Landon works really hard every single day, working the same things over and over so he can get better.
“I’ve enjoyed it. It’s fun watching him wrestle and it’s fun watching him practice,” Ward said. “And he has the drive to do even greater things than he’s already done. He just has to keep working hard.”
The coach added that Landon has the potential to be a two-time state champion for his last two years of high school. He thinks that the wrestler also has the drive, work ethic and skill to do something beyond high school, like collegiate wrestling.
“But that’ll be totally up to him and what he wants to do. But I personally feel like he has it if he wants to do it,” he said.
Ward continued that Landon’s biggest obstacle this year was likely the change in coaching— Ward started at Chandler this year—but he’s adapted well, or perhaps it’s a style that he thrives in.