TACOMA — There’s hot beds of high school wrestling in the country. The first two states that come to the forefront are Iowa and Pennsylvania. Highly-ranked recruits, sold out crowds and the raucous fanbases make for unforgettable tournaments.
Yet those two weren’t as quick as Washington to jump on the girls wrestling bandwagon. This winter marks the 21st season of the state recognizing the sport from a statewide perspective. It wasn’t until 2007 the Washington Interscholatic Activites Association (WIAA) sanctioned the sport.
Girls wrestling has now boomed throughout the country, where even the states that are known for the sport are starting to see it and push through a sanctioning.
“Coming out of COVID, they took a rise and then last year, we saw another bump in the total numbers,” WIAA point of contact for wrestling Justin Kesterson said. “If we saw the numbers break, treat it no different than we do for all of our team sports and the boys.”
This version of the state tournament is a unique one for the girls that make up Southwest Washington. For the first time, Class 2A is its own tournament while 1A remains grouped with 1B and 2B. There’s 24-person brackets, an increase from 12 over the last two years.
Before 3A and 4A broke off two years ago, the state brackets varied based on allocations from 12, 16 and 32 state spots.
While the participation is up and the interest continues to climb, will what transpired on day one of Mat Classic XXXVI on Friday be the cause of a sudden plateau or, even worse, a decline?
Between the 28 combined weight classes of the 2A plus 1B/2B/1A, there were an eye-popping 261 byes and all the wrestling was completed well before 3 p.m. inside the Tacoma Dome. Just nine of the 28 filled out the max 24 qualifiers.
“Byes are bad in general,” W.F. West head coach Matt Patana said. “I would much prefer to have no byes and a 16-man bracket than a 24-man bracket and a bunch of byes.”
This will be the format for the next two years under the current reclassification and re-allocation cycle for state berths. Still, wrestlers and coaches left the first of two days with more head scratching than acceptance.
Behind the reason why 2A broke off
Kesterson consistently referred to the WIAA handbook in deciding why 2A joined 3A and 4A has having the classification’s own state tournament.
Article 25.1.1 references equitable entry into the postseason. Subsection one reads, “The size of the number of entries into the state tournament would be determined by the number of schools that offer that sport in that classification.”
For a 24-entry state tournament, 84-plus schools have to offer the sport. And for allocations, the roster has to be at least eight.
Which adds up to 2A generating the needed interest to break away from the counterparts that have been Mat Classic companions.
“It was an OK decision, but I would have liked wrestling tougher opponents and having more matches out there,” Centralia senior 100-pounder Joeclyn Navarro said. “There’s no need for (261 byes).”
Even as one tournament, the teams at the top of the standings were the 2A’s. They now get to beat up on each other. Still, there’s mixed reactions.
“I liked it better as a group of everybody together, honestly,” Patana admitted. “That gives them the best product. Two-A is till the toughest.”
“We didn’t talk about penalizing because they’re not filling out all those weight classes and drop them down to a 16-entry,” he said. “There is room to grow.”
‘How does all this work?’
As Ryleigh Cruse and Rainier head coach Kelli Garner were looking at the 1B/2B/1A 235-pound bracket, they were in a similar state of confusion.
Every match had a bye into the second round, meaning they’d wrestle just once on Friday. The top-two seeds were automatically through to Saturday’s quarterfinals.
“We all were like ‘Uh, what?’ the whole thing has been strange,” Garner said. “How does all of this work?”
Cruse picked up a pin and capped the tournament for the Mountaineers that featured three others still alive on the championship side. The schedule only featured two rounds of championship wrestling and one round of consolations.
So, every girl that wrestled on Friday can still turn it around and medal on Saturday.
Every. Single. Wrestler.
“The madness that was there today will happen (tomorrow). It has more to do with the WIAA making money,” Patana stated. “It’ll make tomorrow an interesting day.”
There are some that are winless that due to the number of allocations per district, were able to show up at districts, weigh in, have several byes and qualify for Mat Classic. One of them is Rainier sophomore Lauryn Lapine.
Garner and boys head coach Chris Holtermann went over the plan with Lapine. She understood and was for it.
“She is a happy, go-lucky person; we’re pumping her up,” Garner said. “This hopefully gives her motivation and make her a better overall athlete. In that aspect, I have to be happy for her.”
Ketelson called the high amount of byes a “blip.”
“We knew there was going to be a chance to have more byes than usual,” he said. “It is just the first year. I would anticipate were going to see another big bump next year.”
Tenino’s Maleah Chacon, a first-time state qualifier and with two victories will wrestle in the quarters, didn’t have any issues with the environment and atmosphere despite the changes to the format and schedule.
“I like it,” Chacon said.
Changes coming soon?
Wholesale adjustments may not happen until 2026 when the next allocation cycle takes place, then major changes won’t take place for another four years when the classification cycle happens.
Movement here and there? That’s what both Patana and Garner are hopeful for.
“My preference would be to have tough allocations and go back to subs and regionals,” Patana stated.
“What I saw today and last weekend, it is frustrating for them because they want to wrestle,” Garner added. “I hope it is not a trend and we learn some lessons from this, make minor tweaks.”
As for the area itself, W.F. West had five move into the quarterfinals while Black Hills, Centralia and Rainier each had four. Ynavi Rodriguez joined Chacon for the Beavers and Napavine’s Makaylyn Arias also is still alive for a state title.
