Columbus East’s Hank Redman and Columbus North’s Servando Lozano grapple during a 285-pound match Wednesday in Memorial Gymnasium at Columbus North High School. Tommy Walker/For The Republic
Servando Lozano has been a consistent piece to the Columbus North boys wrestling team the past couple years.
Lozano, a senior, will look to finish the season on a great note. His next stop is the Conference Indiana Meet today, and he then will prepare for the upcoming sectional tournament at Jennings County on Jan. 31.
Lozano was interested in wrestling when his cousin Alex wrestled for the team. Once Servando arrived to the wrestling room, he gave it a shot, although it wasn’t easy.
“It was tough. I tried it more and more, but as time went on, I found more love for the sport. I started understanding more,” Servando said. “I felt at the beginning I liked it, but wasn’t 100% on it yet. There were still struggles learning the sport.”
Lozano quickly became a fast learner. At the beginning of his junior year, he made the varsity roster at 285 pounds, and he was a semistate qualifier.
Many of the wrestlers on North’s team also play on the football team, and Lozano was one of them. He was with the football program since he was a sophomore and spent the past two years as an offensive lineman for the varsity.
“I enjoyed playing with coach (Logan) Haston. He helped me grow a lot. It was pretty fun,” Lozano said.
Columbus North’s Servando Lozano pins Madison’s Nathan McBride at 285 points in Saturday’s North Invitational.
Lozano likes playing both wrestling and football. Of course, it also meant having a busier schedule competing in multiple sports.
“It’s not just me, it’s also the coaches getting to know both schedules. The wrestling coaches do a good job of making our schedule more compatible with the football schedule and working around our football schedule,” Lozano said. “I like both sports. I feel like wrestling pushes me a lot, not that football doesn’t push me a lot because it does, but I feel like wrestling is on a whole different level physically. It helps me a lot.”
Once major aspect Lozano worked on transitioning from football to wrestling was his weight. He was running the bike, running the mat and most importantly, keeping his calorie intake in check.
“It’s had its ups and downs. It was a struggle getting it down, but the coaches helped a lot,” Lozano said. “They helped keep track of where my weight was going and helped me get it down so I was able to wrestle. It was hard to get that weight down, but once I got it down, I managed to keep it down there.”
Servando Lozano
In terms of his college aspirations, Lozano mentioned it is unlikely he will pursue sports in college to focus more on his academics. He plans to study engineering, but hasn’t decided on where he wants to attend.
“I want to pursue engineering, but it’s going to be a tough path,” he said. “Being able to manage engineering with tough classes and doing football and wrestling, it would be difficult to do. I want to focus more on school.”
Lozano currently is ranked No. 22 at 285 in the most recent rankings by IndianaMat. He wants to make his first trip to Gainbridge Fieldhouse for the state finals tournament next month, but today, he is focused on the Conference Indiana Meet.
“He’s been a big part of the top end of our lineup. It’s tough sometimes having good, athletic heavyweights and he fits the mold,” North boys wrestling coach Matt Joyce said. “It’s been real good to have him there at the top of the lineup. He’s wrestled really well and beat some ranked kids and beat some semistate-ranked kids. His wrestling has come right along, and that’s due to his coachability. He’d never seen the sport as a sophomore and then now realistically is a contender to be a state qualifier, state placer.”
