Sylvan Hills wrestler Landry Beeching ends career with title after improving every season

By Kyle Sutherland I Photos by Tommy Land

Sylvan Hills senior Landry Beeching was elated, but collected, moments after winning his first state wrestling championship in the 182-pound class during the Arkansas High School Wrestling State Tournament in February after coming up just short the past two years. 

Beeching’s disdain for losing, unorthodox style and tireless work ethic have all been driving forces in achieving immense success.

“I do not get that much emotional positivity from winning — it is more that I just don’t like losing,” Beeching said. “To me, winning is like an end point almost, and I do not really want it to end. That is when my emotions will stop and I am just there. When I lose I don’t want to say my emotions take over, but they run pretty rapid.”

Though Beeching has been a consistent winner, boasting 127 victories in high school to just 13 defeats, the road to get there faced some bumps. His prep wrestling career began in ninth grade, and he got off to a difficult 2-6 start in the 170-pound class, albeit against respectable competition. 

However, it did not take Beeching very long to improve as he became a completely different competitor on the mat, improving with each match before eventually cracking the starting lineup and finishing 29-6. The next year is when he felt that he really took a major step forward as the win total bumped up to 33 with just three losses and he finished as the runner-up.

Growing up in Little Rock before moving across the Arkansas River to Sherwood, Beeching’s interest in wrestling started at a young age when he was competing in Jiu-Jitsu. High school and college wrestlers would work on their craft in the same gym Beeching did Jiu-Jitsu, and he was able to pick up multiple styles from a generation of athletes ahead of him. 

As he continued to progress through the years, Beeching would also model his style after two-time national champion and Olympic gold medalist David Taylor, along with former national champions Jesse Delgado and Isaiah Martinez.

“I struggled with seeing the whole picture of wrestling until I transitioned my sophomore year,” Beeching said. “I think what helped me to see the full perspective is seeing college wrestling. I would sit and watch someone’s style that I liked. I constantly watched them, and that gave me a better understanding of how the movements should flow. It gave me more confidence in myself but just seeing and then drilling it over and over [was a huge factor].” 

Beeching’s mentors throughout his childhood, along with athletes he looked up to on the collegiate and professional level, might have exemplified various ways for him to succeed at the sport he has always been so deeply passionate about, but he feels he is unique, having combined all the styles he learned from each one.

“I had to learn to match up all these styles and understand them from people in various weight classes,” Beeching said. “That is why I feel like I am kind of unique when I wrestle. I don’t do these big-boy moves, I normally do moves you see in a 145 and below. I can also do different ties that heavyweights do, so I feel like I am pretty well-versed [in all areas].”

Chad Collins has been the Bears’ wrestling head coach during Beeching’s entire career and pointed out that matching up against tenured wrestlers early in his career, as Beeching had done growing up, was crucial for his overall progression.

“Looking back at his losses, most of those were to older wrestlers,” Collins said. “As a freshman, he may have been wrestling an 18- or 19-year-old as a 14- or-15-year-old. I learned he could be special early on, and then as a sophomore he makes it to the championship match and gets second. Then last year he battled back after getting a tough draw [in the state tournament] and won the match to get third.”

The tough draw Collins is referring to in 2021 is going down by decision to eventual state champion Austin Brooks of Lakeside in the 182-pound semifinals before winning the third-place match over Ethyn Gibson of Russellville to complete the season 34-1. Despite the loss, Beeching took away the positives and knew he would learn from the missed opportunities.

Beeching moved back down the 170-pound class to start his senior season and took a few steps back, suffering the only three losses he had on the year at the “Bring The Hammer” tournament held at Cabot in December. All of those losses came at the hands of out-of-state competitors from Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.

Once again, he used adversity as just another lesson that he did not fail, but rather learned.

“This year was very special,” Collins said. “We wrestled some real tough competitors at the Cabot tournament, and I think it humbled him getting beat a couple of times. It made him get more focused and he just cake-walked through the state championship.”

About a week after the tournament over winter break, Beeching bumped back up to the 182-pound class, where he would remain for good, and so began his final push to finish at the top.

Beeching continued through January remaining undefeated and reached another milestone along the way, notching his 100th victory Jan. 13.

Entering the state tournament at Jack Stephens Center on the campus of Arkansas-Little Rock, Beeching came in with a record of 28-3 as the top seed in Class 5A for the 182-pound class.

He clinched a first-round victory via a forfeit from Batesville’s Asa Jeffrey but showed no signs of rust, finishing the first day of the tournament by defeating Sheridan’s Hunter Fernandez in the quarterfinals via technical fall 16-1 at the 6:00 mark. That set up a semifinal match with four-seed Izic Clenney of Lake Hamilton the following day.

When Beaching came out for the first of his two possible final matches in his prep career, his head and eyes were in the same direction his mind had been from when he first began — straight ahead, focused on the moment.

He defeated Clenney 3-2 and moved on to the finals, matching up with Lucas Honkala, the two-seed out of Class 5A back-to-back team champion Greenwood. This was an expected and a highly anticipated contest that many were itching to see.

Beeching beat Honkala 2-1 at dual state a week-and-a half prior, so not only was Beeching going to have to take down a fellow established wrestler, but he was also facing one with an oversized chip on his shoulder.

Beeching stepped on the mat one final time for Sylvan Hills in an all-white singlet with a blue bear across the front and got into position.

Despite any odds stacked against him and pressure that could make even a grown man fold, Beeching won the match 3-1, writing a perfect final chapter to a come-from-behind story as he embraced his coaches and teammates before heading to the podium to receive his first-place medal.

But was it the end of the road? As far as Beeching is concerned, he is just now getting started.

“Just because this is my first championship, I do not feel like ending my career here,” Beeching said. “I want to progress more to the college level. To me, this is just the beginning. My work right here has opened a door. It is not about getting my name out there, but more about getting Arkansas wrestling recognized and continue to build on what we have.”

Beeching has not decided where he will attend college but has been in contact with schools, and he plans to wrestle at the college level.

From where he started to how he finished, Beeching’s story is one that just about anyone can take lessons from and use in a variety of areas. From a sports perspective, many young athletes experience growing pains, particularly moving up from a junior high to varsity level as we saw at the early stages of Beeching’s wrestling career. To those who might have or are currently enduring that, Beeching’s advice is to simply keep pushing and do whatever it takes. 

“If you really want it, then you will find a way to get it,” Beeching said. “People try to motivate and inspire themselves, and that is fine. But at the end of the day, it really depends on, do you want it or not? If you really want it, then you will put extra hours into it.”