Trinity’s Lawson Coltrane was delighted after winning the Class 2A championship at 165 pounds against Connor Byrd of Bandys. (PJ Ward-Brown / Randolph Record)
TRINITY — By the time the postseason for the high school wrestling season arrived, Trinity senior Lawson Coltrane knew there could be obstacles. He tried not to think about one of the biggest challenges he would face.
He suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament during the season. But if he wanted to achieve his goal, he would have to deal with it.
“I don’t even know how to explain it,” Coltrane said. “It kind of happened and I was, ‘All right, well, I can still do it.’ ”
And he did, winning the Class 2A state championship at 165 pounds.
The torn ligament in his right knee occurred against a Holly Ridge opponent during the regular season.
“At first it was hard,” Coltrane said. “But just adapt and survive.”
That resulted in down time and strategic adjustments.
“We babied him a little while,” coach Brandon Coggins said. “He has adapted. We’ve changed some style.”
But it didn’t change Coltrane’s mentality or his ability to overpower opponents. He was in his fair share of grueling matches.
After all, he had prepared for this, though it was a process. He was at about 190 pounds as a freshman before refining his body.
After a third-place finish in 2024, he realized how close he was to winning gold.
“I was naturally built. I had pretty good genes,” Coltrane said. “I figured out if I get in the gym, I could find pretty good progress. I worked out all summer and went to offseason practices. I’d like to say I gained a little bit of muscle on me.”
He wasn’t about to allow the injury to become an excuse.
“He’s special,” Coggins said. “It’s how he had to deal with it.”
Coltrane defeated Lexington’s Leviathan Haynes 7-4 in the Midwest Regional final.
That night he acknowledged being “a little bit banged up.” As much as he cherished that outcome, he said that it “doesn’t really count.”
That’s because the biggest prize would come in the state tournament.
There were contrasts for Coltrane from the regional to the states. In the regional, the 165 division was the last bout contested in the finals.
“That gave a lot of time for me to reflect,” he said of the wait.
For the states, the 165 division went first in the title round. So of Randolph County’s nine champions at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, Coltrane became the first to have his hand raised.
While he was prone to dominate matches early in the season, the close results that lasted the full six minutes were fine with Coltrane.
“Last year, I had a lot of them,” he said.
During the state semifinal against Wilkes Central’s Connor Ridgell, the brace on Coltrane’s knee was slipping down his lower leg, something he said occurred occasionally. But there was no time to think about anything other than defeating Ridgell. The result was a 5-3 decision.
“I was scared about that,” Coltrane said. “But I didn’t want to pull it up because then that means I’m worried about it. I want to be fully into the match.”
The next day, he defeated Conor Byrd of Bandys by 7-2 in the state final.
“I’ve been wanting this for a while,” Coltrane said. “When I was little even before I started wrestling, I thought a ring would be cool, but I just don’t know how to get one. … Secured it.”
Coltrane’s record for the season was 44-1, the only loss to another state champion. Then he would plan for a March surgery.
“He’s a workhorse like this,” Coggins said. “That’s why he’s where he’s at. A testament to him.”
