Though the Tornados lost to Spanaway Lake 45-31 and Bonney Lake 42-26 on Wednesday, Jan. 8, in a three-way dual at Bonney Lake High School, Tornados head coach Ben Hawk said the competition provided learning lessons for his athletes, and the team intends to grow from the losses.
In the 45-31 defeat to Spanaway Lake, Tornados Aurora Smith, Siena Venuto, Mariah Gibson, Kylie Minker, Kaitlyn Dover and Sofia Sheedy each earned victories. In the second matchup against Bonney Lake, Yelm High School wrestlers Emma Brewer and Minker each picked up victories. Their teammates Gibson, Dover, Jayden Sasse and Aryana Forouhar picked up forfeit wins.
Hawk said wrestling Spanaway Lake was very competitive.
“They’re one of the full teams we’ll see this season. Seeing a full lineup against a full lineup is always a lot of fun,” Hawk said, adding the teams know each other pretty well as they’ve competed against one another in several tournaments.
Hawk said, due to the high number of matches against Spanaway Lake’s wrestling team, his athletes worked in different strategies each time they took the mat against their South Puget Sound League opponent.
“We found out where we’re at with some of the tougher girls in our league,” Hawk said. “They have quite a few girls that will be placing high, if not winning our league tournament. We got a chance to see how well we’ll fare against them. If we make some adjustments, we’ll either close the distance or pass the girls we lost to.”
Following the dual, Hawk had high praise for his athlete Sheedy, who wrestled one of the toughest wrestlers she’ll see all season. Despite the level of competition, Hawk said Sheedy stood on her own.
“We got to see some really high-end competition against Bonney Lake. Sofia (Sheedy) ended up wrestling a girl who is going to be in the finals at state, if not a state champion. She battled and put herself into really good positions to get points on the board,” Hawk said. “That’s the hard part about wrestling. You see that if it ends in a pin, you think that person got their butt kicked, but these girls are going through positions at such a fast rate, where the slightest wrong turn can end the match. You can’t tell how well a match went for a girl just based on a fall.”
Following the dual, Hawk said the team will assess which areas they need to improve in as a team. He said his team will be working several basic drills to improve fundamentals in order to win a few more matches and score some more points.
“I wore my heart on my sleeve and I told the girls that I wasn’t upset about anything they did. I was more upset about some of the strategies I deployed as a coach. These girls gave it their all, and we learned a lot of good stuff. We got a lot of good information and data points to bring back to our battle room and strategies,” Hawk said. “I don’t feel like we lost due to effort. The girls went out there and fought. We just needed a few basic drills that we’ll be really hammering down as the season ends this next month.”
Up next, the Tornados will compete in the “Iron Sharpens Iron” tournament on Saturday, Jan. 18, at Spanaway Lake High School.
Hawk said a large number of 4A teams will attend and compete. He’ll also send another team of girls to compete at River Ridge High School on the same day.
