Following the South Puget Sound League subregional tournament on Friday, Feb. 7, and Saturday, Feb. 8, 11 members of Yelm High School’s boys wrestling team punched their tickets to the 4A state wrestling competition, Mat Classic XXXVI.
The 11 state qualified wrestlers include Ethan Venuto (113 pounds), Wesley Thompson (138 pounds), Hunter Owens (144 pounds), Lake Harris (150 pounds), Hunter Holman (150 pounds), Ethan Owens (157 pounds), Kaleb Holman (165 pounds), Ashton Carreto (175 pounds), Zander Peterson (175 pounds), Jonah Smith (285 pounds) and Tamaas Wakefield (285 pounds).
Ethan Owens was the lone Tornado to place first in the 4A SPSL subregional tournament. Yelm’s head coach, Tim Beaudin, said it was nice seeing 11 of his wrestlers punch their tickets to the Mat Classic, but he was hoping to see a couple more of his wrestlers earn their way to the big dance.
“You get into that dog fight early and kind of get nervous about whether you’re gonna battle all the way back,” Beaudin said. “Some of them lost their first matches. Some of the kids that didn’t make it through wrestled really well and was one takedown away from being there, so it’s bittersweet. There’s some heartache, and your heart hurts for some of the kids that should have, would have, could have. But we’re super excited to get 11 through to the Tacoma Dome to see what they can do.”
The coach knew the 4A SPSL subregional tournament would be tough, but Beaudin said the tournament was a lot tougher than he initially thought it would be. He said the 4A SPSL is a tough league for high school wrestlers and that a lot of the teams in it have great depth throughout their lineups. He highlighted Rogers and Spanaway Lake as standout programs in the tournament.
“Rogers was tough. I didn’t know they had that much depth. I didn’t know their twos were just as tough as their ones, so a lot of spots fell to those two programs,” Beaudin said. “Spanaway Lake is in the same boat, the one that beat us in the beginning and they’ve got some depth and were tough all the way through.”
Beaudin also highlighted Ethan Owens, stating that the 157-pound wrestler “never stops grinding.”
“His heart is bigger than his talent at times, and sometimes that’s what it takes to win. He was kind of frustrated with not being in a number one seed, and went into that thing with a little chip on his shoulder and wrestled really well,” Beaudin said.
He added that the 150-pounder Harris and 285-pounder Smith, who each took second place in the subregional tournament, both ran into some tough competition.
“Lake has seen that kid from Bonney Lake now four times, and he’s got the better of us three times. But he is beatable. We just gotta work on some things in practice. I don’t want to say what those things are, but we’re gonna go after it and try to improve so that we can win that match when it’s crucial,” Beaudin added.
Thompson and Carreto, Yelm’s third-place finishers at subregionals, also stood out to Beaudin.
He said that Thompson tends to do his best wrestling in the postseason and that he’s faced some of the toughest competition that the state has to throw at him.
“We know Wesley can grind,” Beaudin said. “Ashton Carreto is a wrecking ball. Hopefully we can get all those guys to place. We’ve got some six and sevenths that are gonna have to wrestle their butt off to get through those rounds. You never know what the other leagues are bringing.”
The 165-pounder, Peterson, also emerged in the subregional tournament as he filled in the lineup for his teammate, Roman Rosenburg.
“Zander was a third string 165 pounder for us. Roman broke his ankle, and Zander got an opportunity to wrestle and he found his niche,” Beaudin said. “He started doing some moves that were amazing, I’m not gonna say what those are. It was neat to see him finally get to a point that he’s now one of the dudes.”
With the season winding down and put-up or shut-up time quickly approaching with the annual Mat Classic set to occur next week, Beaudin is hopeful to see his team focus on handling business inside the Tacoma Dome.
“I just want the guys to go out there and compete and worry about their own individual placing. Grind it out. If we can finish in the top eight, that would be great,” Beaudin said. “I know my goal at the start of the season was to finish the season top four, but we’ve lost a couple pieces. The levy kind of hurt us with transportation. I had a couple of kids not show up that could score points that I figured would be in the tournament.”
