OVIEDO, Fla. — State championships in high school wrestling are approaching, and after placing first in the regional championships, Oviedo High School's Lukas Crawley has high expectations to finish his senior season.

It takes a lot of discipline to get to these accolades and this character trait leads Crawley in all areas of life.

Crawley replaced the existing name in the 169 weight class on the record wall, adding his name to the history books after he recorded school bests in both bench press and clean and jerk lifts. 

“I broke these, yes, the bench and the clean and jerk,” said the Oviedo High School senior. “I’ve actually broken it at every meet so far, (regional championships) were just when I hit my highest total.”

“He’s going to leave here as one of the best all time weightlifters,” said Oviedo weightlifting coach Greg Odierno. “We kind of went through a lull and overall weightlifting and, for him to come first in his region, that’s huge.”

Weightlifting is a sport that Crawley added onto his athletic resume just last year. He first said goodbye to football at the beginning of high school, instead transitioning to wrestling and weightlifting.

“Sophomore year, I was pretty good at (wrestling). I wasn’t that great at football, and I was like, ‘I want this to be my primary sport.’ So, I did that, and I was lifting and the time that I did that. So, I started weightlifting last year,” said Crawley.

“He was a strong kid. But it seemed like when he transitioned just to focus on wrestling and weightlifting, it his numbers shot up,” said Odierno.

As he has grown through high school, his physical strength has skyrocketed.

“My freshman year I was 132. And then this year in wrestling I was 165 and I’m 169 now. It feels great because you don’t really see it, like from day to day. But going back and looking at like pictures, you definitely notice a difference,” said Crawley.

In order to build the way Crawley has and accomplish the things he’s done, he’s stayed disciplined in a number of different ways.

“You have to have a lot of discipline. It’s important because it does get hard at times. But you know, there’s definitely a lot of ways you can cheat the system and not do what you’re supposed to,” said Crawley. 

Discipline is something that he has learned through his time in ROTC with plans to attend a military academy when he graduated high school.

“I like the camaraderie of it. Just everyone being a part of a bigger thing. So it’s not like wrestling and weightlifting where it’s individual,” said Crawley. “You’re all part of a team and working towards the same goal and being able to help each other with each other.”