(ABC 6 News) — In a sport dominated by physicality and power, Chatfield senior Miles Mulhern exhibits plenty of both. Especially when it’s taken until now to finally wrestle on the varsity team.

“Just kept wrestling behind good wrestlers like Seth Goetzinger and Grady Schott,” Mulhern recounted. “And then, the knee injury last year and I just kept working and working to be a State place-winner.”

“This is his first year of wrestling (as a) heavyweight,” Gophers head coach Matt Mauseth noted. “He’s had to change his style a little bit… New moves, new attacks and kind of a new way of wrestling.”

As the anchor of the team, Mulhern’s turned in a 19-4 campaign so far including a 6-0 sweep at The Clash in La Crosse.

“It was fun, we went down there as a team, we all wrestled hard,” Mulhern said. “Just one match at a time, working towards our goal to be State champs.”

Making state as a team is his main goal. Knowing Chatfield’s past two section playoff finishes, the deciding win could fall to him. Not that Mulhern is worried if it does.

“I just don’t tell myself that it’s down to me,” Mulhern continued. “I like to think of it — that the whole team is putting in the effort together and just go out there and wrestle my hardest, wrestle my match.”

“You can beat someone with more heart,” teammate Kail Schott mentioned. “They can be way better than you, but you got to have more heart. If you want it more, that’s what matters the most.”

Mulhern has experienced enough to deserve his lone varsity season. He’s riding on his muscle and his mentality to keep him in the zone. When he’s staring down his opponent, he always remembers pressure is never a pain. It’s a privilege.

“I don’t know, it’s my last year, I just want to give it everything I’ve got and one last hurrah,” Mulhern concluded. “I feel like we could definitely be one of the top teams in the state, we just keep working and working and just wrestle our matches.”