Lawrence High School wrestlers, from left, senior Levi Flohrschutz, sophomore Hunter Haralson, sophomore Andrew Denning and junior Reece Wright-Conklin, have been wrestling at the same gym since their childhoods. All four have been vital parts to the Lions’ No. 6 ranking in the state.

Nick Pursel, Blake Greenfield, Hunter Haralson and Reece Conklin all finished in the top five at the state tournament in this 2006 photo.

Reece Conkin, left, and Hunter Haralson pose with their state title plaques Sunday at the Topeka Expocenter in this 2006 photo.

As wrestling mats go, the ones upstairs in Lawrence High’s West gymnasium aren’t as rancid as most. With no wall on the side of the wrestling room that overlooks the basketball court, the heat escapes out the balcony and keeps sweating to a minimum.

Still, it’s not as if the mats give the room a flower-shop feel.

“I like it,” junior Reece Wright-Conklin said of the smell. “This gym is where I feel most comfortable. It’s not the cleanest mat, but it’s my home.”

Wright-Conklin, reigning 6A state champion at 160 pounds who since has moved up to 171, knows the room well. He started wrestling there when he was 5 years old. So did senior Levi Flohrschutz, who wrestles at 135 pounds.

The aroma is familiar to him, too.

“I don’t know if I’d say I like the smell,” Flohrschutz said. “I like the sound it makes whenever you throw somebody on it, though.”

And what sound is that?

“Whack!” he said.

Sophomore Hunter Haralson said he was 6 when he first became a mini-mat man.

“My dad offered it when I was little and I wasn’t doing anything other than flag football at the time,” Haralson said. “It’s basically fighting. I like being able to pull somebody down on the mat and I like to beat people.”

Wright-Conklin, Flohrschutz and Haralson learned the sport as members of Sunflower Kids Wrestling from Randy Streeter, who still runs the club. Streeter is wrestling coach at South Junior High and assistant coach at LHS.

Sophomore Andrew Denning said he started at age 5 as part of the youth team his father coached in Perry.

His experience gives him the edge, he said, because, “I know more moves than the other people, usually.”

Senior Ben Seybert (189 pounds) — he took the sport up briefly at 9, quit, and didn’t resume until two years later — joins the four life-long grapplers in giving the Lions five wrestlers ranked among the top six in their classes in Class 6A.

The Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association, which does the rankings, places LHS at No. 6 in 6A.

Wright-Conklin is ranked first in his weight class, Haralson second, Seybert third, Denning fourth, Flohrschutz sixth. (Free State High sophomore Spencer Wilson is ranked third among 160-pound wrestlers.)

Every ranked LHS wrestler shares at least two common goals: Win an individual and team state title.

“That is my goal,” Seybert said. “I’m shooting for the top. Why not, right?”

Seybert likes that his matches are the third-last of the meet because they take place in order of weight.

“I like being able to cheer on my teammates early and then being able to finish hard,” he said. “I kind of have control over my team’s destiny, somewhat. I know what I have to do going into the match.”

When a wrestler wins a match by up to seven points it counts as three points for the team, eight-to-14 points counts as four team points, it’s five team points for a technical fall (winning by 15 points or more) and a pin counts for six points.

Seybert also likes the weight he’s at because it means he is one of the practice partners of Wright-Conlkin, the team’s best.

Camaraderie is evident at practices, where the athletes go through drills as their favorite music booms, but it can get intense.

“He makes me a lot better,” Seybert said of Wright-Conklin. “We get pretty competitive during practice. It really carries over to the real deal.”

The word “natural” rolls off the tongues of those who have seen Wright-Conklin wrestle since he started the sport. Seybert, who hasn’t seen him as long, has a good grasp for what makes his teammate so tough to beat.

“First of all, he’s been doing it since he was so young,” Seybert said. “He’s got all the technique. He knows what he’s doing and he’s got confidence, for sure. He’s really flexible with his hips. He’s really got that leverage. It’s hard to move him. Since he’s been lifting he’s got a lot of upper-body strength. And he’s really quick. He’s just really good all-around, every aspect.”

Starting young isn’t a requirement but is an advantage in wrestling.

LHS wrestling coach Pat Naughton didn’t take up the sport until he was a freshman at Des Moines Dowling Catholic in the wrestling-rich state of Iowa. With wrestlers in front of him and behind him bound for Div. I programs such as Iowa State, Notre Dame and Brown, Naughton was relegated to the junior varsity squad. That didn’t do anything to douse his passion for the sport.

“If you just take it up in high school, there is going to be a huge learning curve and a huge problem with getting frustrated and getting beat every single time you step on the mat,” Naughton said. “It wears on the ego. Once they understand it will take a year, a year-and-a-half to catch up, it’s gangbusters after that.”

Watching wrestlers become more sure of themselves is one of the aspects of the job Naughton enjoys most.

“Achievement and perseverance goes a long way in building their self-confidence and getting them out of their shells,” Naughton said. “They start, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ and their whole mind-set changes to, ‘OK, I can do this.’ The whole thing with wrestling is that as soon as you hesitate you’re gone. It helps you to be more decisive, to be more of a go-getter. It really helps in your self-confidence, knowing that no matter what adversity I’m going to face, I know I can get through it.”

More than the wrestlers benefit from getting an early start in the sport. It often works out well for the parents of young children who happen to be especially energetic.

“Sometimes it’s just better for them to give them to me,” Streeter said with a laugh. “I personally have kids who have a lot of energy and this is a good way to get them started.”

Flohrschutz said he was on the hyper side as a child.

“I probably didn’t go into timeout as much because of wrestling,” Flohrschutz said. “Wrestling helps you get more disciplined. It helps you set goals and reach your goals. It helps you with determination.”

That’s one of the many qualities needed to get through three grueling, two-minute rounds without suffering a concentration lapse that could cost a wrestler the match.

The quote uttered by Dan Gable, the most famous former American wrestler (Iowa State, Olympic gold medalist) and wrestling coach (Iowa, U.S. Olympic team), captures the difficulty of the sport: “Once you’ve wrestled, everything else in life is easy.”

The Lions, who play host to Olathe Northwest in the West Gym at 6 p.m. today, aren’t looking for easy. They’re looking for state titles and there never is anything easy about those.