Eight members of the Yelm girls wrestling team competed against some of the region’s best on Friday, Dec. 27 and Saturday, Dec. 28 at the Pac Coast Girls Wrestling Championships in Ridgefield and lived up to the saying “iron sharpens iron” as the Tornados placed seventh as a team.
South Puget Sound League’s Bonney Lake won the tournament with a team score of 161. It was followed by Union, 139.5, South Kitsap, 126.5, Skyview, 122.5, SPSL’s Emerald Ridge, 109, Black Hills, 107.5, and Yelm, 107. Granger, W.F. West and Camas rounded out the top 10. A total of 44 schools competed in the annual tournament.
Senior Samantha Blank was crowned the 135-pound champion at the Clark County Event Center after picking up four pinfall victories on her way to the finals. She defeated St. Helens wrestler Kallee Kester 18-2 in a tech fall to win her weight bracket’s championship.
“She’s a wrecking ball. No one wanted to tie up with her. No one wanted to attack her. Sam had to run those pins down and collect that trophy. She’s on a mission. If you get a chance to watch her this season, Sam is on a mission,” coach Ben Hawk said. “There was an extended period of waiting time until Sam’s finals match. We can’t help what the tournaments do, but I think they should adjust it next year. Sam waited around, and she made it worth the wait. She put on a show in the finals, and it was great that we got to see her get a moment of glory there and make it worth the wait.”
Joining Blank on the podium was Kylie Minker, 190-pound third-place finisher; Sofia Sheedy, 100-pound fourth-place finisher; and Destiny Mathews, 105-pound sixth-place finisher. Siena Venuto, 120 pounds, Emma Brewer, 130 pounds, Luciana Blakemore, 135 pounds, and Kaitlyn Dover, 235 pounds, also competed in the Pac Coast Girls Wrestling Championships tournament.
“They wrestled tough,” Hawk said. “Every one of the girls showed up and battled. They were ready to wrestle. It was a big tournament. There were 16 mats out there, and there was a boys and girls tournament going on simultaneously. It was a big tournament atmosphere, and it didn’t shake them. We got warmed up, got on the mats and took it to ’em. The girls rose to the level of competition and beat some girls who on paper might’ve been better than them.”
Hawk said his athletes competing in the tournament had tough competition scattered throughout their brackets, and they had to take on returning state champions or state championship contenders.
“Though they didn’t win, what I like to say is they messed their opponent’s hair up,” Hawk said. “Their opponent will remember having to wrestle the Yelm girl. It wasn’t an easy match. Our two semifinalists got after it and really fought hard in that semifinals match. Both of their opponents were surprised by how hard our Yelm girls battled.”
He added that his wrestlers’ tenacity stems from how they work in practice on the mats. If his athletes can approach every match with intensity, Hawk believes they’ll continue to win small positions and more matches because of their approach.
“They all see what technique is working. The positions we’re working on all the time are common positions,” Hawk said. “For us, it doesn’t matter who we’re against as long as we’re believing in what we’re training and how we’re training. Some of these brackets had multiple state placers — every weight I imagine had multiple state placers. There were all kinds of girls that were ranked in every bracket. As the tournament went on, the matches started to get harder and closer. It was cool to see that level of competition.”
Yelm will have yet another tough test on Friday, Jan. 10, and Saturday, Jan. 11, as the team will compete in the 2025 Braided 64 tournament in Kelso, Washington. Hawk noted that 103 girls wrestling teams from the region will compete in the annual tournament.
“It’s going to be a crazy tournament. The wrestling starts at 3 p.m. on Jan. 10 and goes until about midnight. Some girls will wrestle four or five matches that night, and then the next morning wrestle up the six times,” Hawk said. “That tournament is going to be a real grinder of a competition.”
