The Rainier High School girls wrestling team followed up a third-place finish at the Stocking Stuffer Invitational in Hoquiam on Dec. 20 with a championship at the Stone City Throwdown in Tenino on Dec. 22.
The Mountaineers weren’t satisfied with their performance in Hoquiam, and they quickly turned it around in Tenino. Emma Desotell (110 pounds) and Ryleigh Cruse (235) were crowned champions in their respective divisions at the event. Rainier finished with 132 points, eight more than runner-up Montesano’s 124.
“I thought they did really well. It was an interesting dynamic that girls who two days before didn’t perform as well in Hoquiam did really well on Friday,” head coach Chris Holterman said. “It was definitely a team effort.”
Layla Hill (125), Keira Anderson (170) and Chloe Willis (235) each placed second in their divisions, while Annabelle Whiteman (145), Maddison Deane (155) and Katherine Kinahan (190) took home third place.
Holterman said he was proud of how the Mountaineers quickly flipped the script after Wednesday’s third-place finish.
“It was just some determination on their part, not being satisfied and just striving to get better each day, which is something we talk about all the time,” he said of his team’s improvement. “They wrestled two days out of three, and they didn’t get a lot of recovery time in between either. So sometimes that can slow them down, but it didn’t seem to and they were able to rise up.”
On Wednesday, Cruse and Willis wrestled for third and fourth place, with Willis coming out on top. Holterman said the two athletes make each other better by often wrestling each other in the tournaments.
“They have a good practice partner to work with every day,” he said.
The Mountaineers also took first place in the Lady Mountaineer Invitational on Dec. 16, outdistancing runner-up Bethel 142 to 128.5. Holterman said despite having several inexperienced wrestlers coming into the season, they have improved dramatically and learned from the tournaments.
“As a team, they show up every day and really bust their butt and try to get better,” he said. “I think we’re starting to see that on the mat. If they have a bad week, they get right back at it.”
The Mountaineers also competed at the Woolley Women’s Wrestling Tournament on Saturday, Dec. 30 and finished 15th out of 28 teams. Desotell and Anderson each placed second in their respective divisions. The team’s next outing is Saturday, Jan. 6 at Curtis High School.
