When Oliver Loehr joined the varsity wrestling team as a freshman, he thought he understood the game. But now, despite two more years of experience and numerous high placings, he feels like he has more to learn than ever.
Despite only two losses so far over his junior season, Loehr’s wrestling journey and knowledge is far from complete.
Loehr first enrolled at St. Mark’s in 5th grade and jumped straight into wrestling during his first year. He already notched a year of wrestling under his belt because his brother, Wyatt Loehr ‘25, was able to get him into the school’s younger wrestling program.
“I started in fourth grade mainly because (Wyatt) did it,” Loehr said. “And my dad did it and he wanted me to try it.”
He never thought wrestling would be more than an after school activity. Already preoccupied with lacrosse and soccer, wrestling was low on his list of priorities. But as he got more involved in the sport, the environment became more and more like home.
Loehr and his brother had always gotten along well, but now they shared a passion. Although he grew frustrated by getting beat up by his brother in practice, he became tougher. And as time went on, he became a more dominant force on the mat.
“He (Wyatt) just beat me up pretty much in practice,” Loehr said. “My brother and I have always been competitive. We’d always mess around, which is probably why we got sent to wrestling.”
When Loehr was a freshman (Wyatt’s junior year), they both placed third in a tournament. A brotherly rivalry was born.
Being younger and always working from behind, Loehr always wanted to be better than his brother, stemming his competitive nature. So, Loehr went all-in on wrestling.
“I came to like it the more I did it,” Loehr said. “I found a lot of friends who did it, and once you get past certain thresholds, you learn a lot about the sport, the creativity, and it becomes really fun.”
As Loehr started traveling to all the big varsity tournaments, he began to notice the dedication and discipline of the other athletes there. He enjoyed seeing how their hard work paid off and it humbled him and inspired him.
“You see how good people can get,” Loehr said. “The levels of wrestling are absurd, really. Like gosh, you’ll think you’re good, then you go to some big tournament, and see some kid destroy everyone.”
As Loehr became more deeply involved at the varsity level, the bonds he made with teammates took him a long way. It was nice for Loehr to gain big supporters and close friends from wrestling. Him and his friends push each other to be great, often meeting up to practice. These frequent meetings and practices have been essential to Loehr’s understanding of the sport.
“During freshman year, I didn’t know what I was doing,” Loehr said. “I threw headlocks only to gas people out, and would finally win in some stupid way. Then later on, I began building an offense, understanding the sport, or thinking I understood it.”
Loehr thought it would all go up from there, but it didn’t.
Breaking his finger early on during sophomore year, Loehr experienced his first major setback. He was able to come back two weeks before the state tournament started. Going to practice with a cast on, working out, and doing stances in motion during practice made him realize how much he loved the sport.
Over the summer of junior year, Loehr put in a lot of work. Once summer lacrosse died down, it was back to wrestling, practicing every day and even sneaking into the Highland Park High School wrestling room to put more work in.
After countless hours of training, Loehr finally felt the satisfaction of winning at a high level throughout his current junior season, with only two losses on the season.
“It felt weird to actually win and wrestle well, because I’m much more dominant in matches than in practice,” Loehr said. “In practice, I try to get better, and the growth isn’t always shown. But during a match, the work is just shown.”
Even with the wins piling up and the losses waning, Loehr continues to improve his game, constantly practicing new moves, techniques and strategies to grow his knowledge of the game.
“There’s so much to wrestling that every practice, I have one or two things I want to work on, and that’s all I think about because there’s so much,” Loehr said. “You can’t learn too much at a time or else you learn nothing.”
Whether he’s practicing a complex move or simply working on keeping his hands down when tying up with someone, Loehr realizes that everything he learns goes back to fundamentals. Although Loehr’s arsenal of moves keeps growing, his understanding of the sports seems to become simpler.
“There’s so many ways to win, but when you face someone who’s good, you’ll do two minutes of hand fighting, just for this one shot,” Loehr said. “That’s what I’ve learned recently, and it made me think, ‘wow, I really don’t know this sport too well.’”
For Loehr, he feels like there’s always something new to learn, and is continuing to chase mastery.
