TACOMA — An underdog? Not anymore. Caleb O’Halek is a state champion now.
The Olympic High School sophomore won a Class 3A wrestling title Saturday at Mat Classic XXII at the Tacoma Dome, joining teammate and three-time state finalist Branden Yeik at the top of the podium. Those efforts were good enough to help Olympic to a fourth-place finish in the team standings.
A 3-0 win over Enumclaw High School’s Kario Wallin gave O’Halek gold in the 160-pound weight division.
“I put a lot of hard work in this year and it’s all worth it now,” he said. “I believed in myself. I believed I would win state.”
With his fists clenched and arms raised, O’Halek looked to the crowd and flexed following his triumphant bracket sweep.
One of the first people to greet the champion was Yeik, who was a favorite to win and secured the title at 145 about half an hour earlier.
A leader of the pack now, O’Halek wrestled in Yeik’s shadow all season.
“It took a lot of the pressure off of me because I’m more of an underdog,” O’Halek said. “I’m more comfortable in the underdog position.”
He lost nine times prior to state, the second-most of Olympic’s five state participants. Matt Hoyt, a fifth-place finisher, lost 10.
But coach Steve Polillo said O’Halek improved steadily all season, learned from his mistakes and entered the tournament with confidence. Polillo encouraged O’Halek to believe in himself and not be intimidated by the competition.
The message was simple.
“It’s just another high school kid. His mom yells at him to get up in the morning, just like your mom yells at you to get up in the morning,” Polillo said. “If you can make it through my practices, you can beat this kid. I promise. I guess he believes me now.”
O’Halek won both his matches on the first day of competition Friday, defeating Joe Traverso of Hanford High School in the first round, 8-3, and Jake Chakravarty of Liberty High School in the quarterfinals, 3-2.
After an 11-3 victory over Isaiah Corwin of Lindbergh High School in the semis, O’Halek found himself in the title match.
A takedown late in the first round gave O’Halek a 2-0 lead. He extended the lead to 3-0 early in the third and didn’t feel like he could let up.
“I never really felt comfortable with the lead,” he said.
Yeik makes it two
For Yeik, a senior who won a championship in 2008 and was a runner-up last year, winning a title was the perfect finish to an impressive career.
He reached a state championship match all three seasons with the team and compiled a record of 107-6, breaking the school’s mark for most career wins. He finished the season with a 35-2 record.
Despite that success, it was a struggle to reach the top.
Wrestling with a sprained ankle, the two-time champion dropped to a knee more than once during the final. In the first period, Noel went ahead 4-0 after Yeik’s ankle gave out during an attempted arm drag in the opening moments.
“My ankle just caved in, literally caved in,” he said. “I was on my back and it was like a movie.”
But with his dad sitting mat-side and younger brother Cody Yeik looking on, Branden Yeik scored 13 of the final 16 points.
The win helped avenge Cody Yeik’s narrow loss in the title match at 112.
“Watching him lose, that was the most painful thing I’ve ever watched,” Branden Yeik said. “I wanted him to win more than me.”
Supporting cast helps team to fourth overall
With Cody Yeik, Jesse Borcherding and Hoyt finishing second, third and fifth in their respective weight classes, the Trojans took fourth in the team standings.
Yelm High School took first with 148.5 points, followed by Enumclaw (142), North Central High School (124.5) and the Trojans (95.5). Olympic was 10-0 on the first day of action Friday, sending all five wrestlers to the semis.
“They knew they were going to be in the semifinals, and they were going to wrestle as hard as they could,” Polillo said.
Sophomore Cody Yeik came within a point of joining his brother at the top of the podium.
Facing rival Jake Velarde of North Kitsap High School for the fifth time this season, Cody Yeik made his only mistake at the worst time.
With the score tied 1-1 in sudden-death overtime, Velarde scored a two-point takedown after Cody Yeik extended his arms on a move and let his head get too low.
Velarde, a freshman, won four of the duo’s five matches this season and ended the chance for the brothers to both bring home titles.
“Second place as a sophomore is a heck of an accomplishment,” Polillo said of Cody Yeik, who during the regular season won the SunDome and Matman classics and took third at the Pacific Coast Championships. “He’s got a lot to be proud of.”
Borcherding’s third-place finish marked the senior’s third consecutive year advancing to the semis.
It was a strong placing for Borcherding, who at times this season battled injury and illness.
“That’s the mark of somebody who is going to be successful their whole life,” Polillo said.
Hoyt, meanwhile, opened with two straight victories and reached the podium. And the 152-pounder isn’t even a year-round wrestler.
“You’ve just got to love that kid,” Polillo said.
Polillo said Hoyt’s performance was as important as any on the team, since the Trojans had half as many competitors than Enumclaw and Yelm, both of whom had 11.
North Central sent six.
“It’s just so rewarding to see young people understand that if you stay focused on something and do what you’re supposed to, good things happen,” Polillo said.
Klahowya Secondary School
Despite sending eight wrestlers to the tournament, the Eagles didn’t come away with any individual titles.
Senior Neil Sell came the closest, losing the championship match at 152 pounds to Marques Ford of River Ridge High School, 10-8. Sell also was a second-place finisher as a sophomore in 2008.
Freshman Adam Burchett, a 103-pounder, placed third after losing in the semis. He defeated Washougal High School’s Chism King, 2-0, in the match for third and fourth.
Klahowya took eighth in the team standings with 60.5 points. Deer Park High School was the champion with 150.
Bremerton High School
Bremerton’s Lauren Richardson came up short in her bid for a second straight championship.
After winning her first two matches, the 103-pound junior lost 7-5 in the semis to Rachel Archer of Winlock High School, the eventual runner-up.
That sent Richardson to the consolation bracket, where she she won two consecutive matches to finish third. She edged Skyview High School’s Elise Yoshioka, 5-4, in the match for third and fourth.
Richardson was the lone Bremerton athlete to compete.
Central Kitsap High School
It was a quiet weekend for the Cougars, who finished 44th in the 4A team standings.
Four Central Kitsap athletes competed — Joey Troyer, Ethan Beck, Evan Beck and Ian Sprecher — but all of them lost in the first round and dropped to the consolation bracket.
