No obstacle is insurmountable.

Ask Landon Near of Lee Center, who’s made a successful run as a high school wrestler at Newman Central Catholic High School in Sterling.

When a wrestler two years older with two years more experience than him kept beating him dual after dual, he didn’t resign himself to the idea that he wasn’t better than his opponent — instead, he got better than his opponent. Near worked harder and it paid off. He not only rose to the challenge, he rose to a state championship, too.

Near won the Illinois High School Association title at 113 pounds on Feb. 21 at the University of Illinois’ State Farm Center in Champaign, and along his postseason path to the championship, he defeated the wrestler whose victories had pushed him to prove himself, Princeton’s Augustus Swanson, once in the sectional final and again when the two met for a rematch in the state final bout.

The championship came a year after he took fourth place at 106 pounds at state as a freshman, a season that saw him win 44 matches. He equaled that total this past season, putting him 12 wins away from the 100-win accomplishment that most high school wrestlers see as a goal for their careers.

For now, no win feels more important to him than his most recent. Yet the magnitude of the moment never seemed to overwhelm him.

“I thought of it as another wrestling match,” Near said. “Having watched the matches that I had lost to him, I realized what I had to do and fix how I wrestled, knowing what he was going to do as well.”

Near takes his wrestling seriously. He puts in the extra work he needs to be better at it, whether it’s filling his free time competing in off-season meets across the country or keeping up a practice regimen up to four days a week. Wrestling, he said, is a sport that demands consistency long before it delivers results.

“I like that the amount of work you put in really shows,” Near said. “You can be athletic and that can help, but to be really good at wrestling, you have to put in a lot of work to get to where you want to be, and doing the extra stuff as well almost every day. Most people don’t see all of the work that gets put in. There are little changes in moves that will make wrestlers better.”

Near’s high school coaches, head coach Brody Ivey and assistant coach Adam Meenen, have seen Near’s persistence pay off, too.

“The work ethic in this kid is phenomenal,” Meenen said. “Going out on the weekends to do extra stuff, you never have to ask him to do anything extra, he’s always wrestling on the weekend or doing whatever to help that.”

Near has come a long way since getting his first taste of wrestling, back when he was in preschool, where the wins and pins didn’t come as easily. He didn’t wrestle again until grade school, having been inspired by the high school wrestling tales his father, Aaron Near, shared. Aaron, a 2002 Franklin Center High School graduate, wrestled for the Ashton-Franklin Center Raiders and was a sectional qualifier his senior year.

When an opportunity to participate once more in the sport presented itself through the Clipper Wrestling Club in Amboy, Near pounced on it.

“My dad would tell me about how he wrestled in high school, and I would think back to that,” Near said. “They passed out a paper in class one time, I gave it to my dad, and I wanted to do it.”

The Clipper Wrestling Program competed in the Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation, and its tournaments often involved kids paired against one another not just by weight, but also by their grade level. When Near entered high school, he caught on to how high school wrestling involved sometimes freshmen like him wrestling against seniors, and the challenges it presented.

Near credits his time with the Clipper Club for developing his attack strategies, reaction times, turns and scrambling to make him the wrestler he has become at Newman.

“It was a pretty awesome experience starting off from being in IKWF to high school,” Near said. “It was definitely way different; instead of tournaments every weekend, there are also dual meets, and having to manage your weight throughout the year. The style of wrestling is also way different in high school than from IKWF, in my opinion. You could wrestle kids three years older than you, if they’re a senior and wrestling a freshman, instead of wrestling a kid who’s your exact age. It changes things up a little bit.”

Freshman jitters weren’t a thing for Near; he won all but six matches his first year, and through a sectional semifinal win against Richmond-Burton’s Lelan Nelson — in a 1 minute, 18 second fall — made him a state qualifier. He placed second in the sectional and went 4-2 at state.

During his days with the Clipper Club, Near would join teammates on day trips to watch the high school wrestlers compete at state, and hoped one day he would be the one being watched. It didn’t take him very long to get there.

“It was pretty cool,” Near said. “As a little kid, we used to come down and watch it, and see these great matches from these high school wrestlers. Now I’m the person that those little kids in the stands are watching.”

Bumping up a weight class to 113 for his sophomore season, he cut his loss total in half and was unbeaten during December and February. His losses came within a 15-day span during a challenging stretch in January, including two to Swanson. They met again at the Byron Sectional for its championship, where Near dispatched his first two opponents with first-period pins. He defeated Swanson 7-4, having scored an early takedown and didn’t look back after that.

That win brought Near more confidence and helped him on his path toward a state championship, he said.

“Augustus, I knew I could beat him throughout the year, and we had some close matches,” Near said. “After I beat him, I was kind of like, ‘I know what I got to do now.’ After sectionals, somebody asked me if I think I’d see him at state again, and I said, ‘Yeah, I’m almost positive that’s what is going to happen.’”

Indeed they did meet. Near scored a fall in 1:30 in his first state match, and won decisions of 5-1 and 7-4 in his next two matches to meet with Swanson again. He fared even better than in the previous meeting, shutting him out 7-0 to capture the state title.

His strategy this time around? Stay out of Swanson’s front headlock, because that’s where he had scored most of his points on him throughout the season, Near said.

“He almost scored a takedown in the first period, but I fought a pretty hard cross-face to get to his leg, and finished it off from that,” Near said. “I ran some legs on top in the second period, and I took him down in the third period and rode legs, which during the season I couldn’t from down when he was on bottom, but the legs kind of changed the game.”

As the third period went by, Near started to notice the crowd cheering him on — something he usually blocked out in a tough competition. When the clock hit 0:00 and the buzzer sounded, it was a moment that became etched in his mind for what’s sure to be a long time.

“Everything kind of blacked out, and I realized what I had just did,” Near said. “I looked to the crowd and everyone’s cheering. The crowd definitely helped with the momentum, and I then could hear them in the background. During my match, I couldn’t really notice them because I was so locked in, I guess, but afterward — that was a great feeling.”

His run didn’t happen in isolation. Newman went 21-6 in dual meets this year, building the kind of environment where wrestlers like Near could thrive.

“Coming into the year, we all knew the potential he had, what he was going to do, and being on a mission to win a state title,” coach Meenan said. “That was his plan, and we saw it from day one. Each week, you just knew, yeah, he’s going to get it done. He’s a great kid, and is one of those kids who you want to coach and be a part of. He’s always going the extra mile, and keeping everyone on a tight rope.”

Near isn’t done yet. He plans to compete at the 2026 U.S. Marine Corps Junior Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota in July, looking to improve on a 1-2 record from his time there a year ago. And with two more years of high school left, there are two more state titles to win. That, Near said, is tougher to do, and he’s cognizant of knowing the responsibility of being a defending champion.

“Now that I’ve won state, I’m probably going to have target on my back,” Near said. “A lot of people say it’s harder to stay at the top than getting to the top. Everyone’s looking to beat you. You have stuff to lose now; you’re not the person with nothing to lose.”

For all the focus on what’s next, there’s still time to appreciate what’s already been accomplished. Still, the significance of the moment hasn’t been lost on him.

“It feels amazing, really,” Near said. “All of the hard work is finally adding up to something and getting me to achieve my goals, and taking me to places that I’ve dreamed of as a beginner. Last year, it was possible to get it done, but it didn’t work or end up happening the way I wanted, but I wound up doing it this year to make up for it.”

Beyond the wins and titles, it’s the approach that continues to carry him forward.

“There’s always doubt in the back of your head somewhere. You pretty much have to have a clear mind, and think that’s it’s just a wrestling match, really. That’s exactly what I think about before I walk out for my match, just not overthinking it, think that if you did [win], how awesome it would be, not worrying about losing, and staying confident.”

Did you know: Newman Central Catholic wrestlers have placed in the Top 6 in each year of the Illinois High School Association State Tournament in all but four years since 2000; in two of those years (2021 and 2022), no tournament was held due to the coronavirus pandemic. Landon Near is the 26th Newman wrestler to win an IHSA state championship, and those wrestlers have collectively won 38 state championships since 1977.