What the Rainier High School wrestling team lacks in numbers, it makes up for in postseason experience and success.
The Mountaineers featured a program record 47 wrestlers entering last season, but this year, 33 or 34 athletes will take the mat, still a significant number for the program after an anomalous year. Seven wrestlers return after qualifying for the Mat Classic XXXV last year.
That experience will be needed for a 2024-25 tournament schedule that 31-year head coach Chris Holterman described as “pretty tough.” The first week of practice was spent focusing on the basics and getting athletes’ bodies reacclimatized to wrestling techniques.
“We’re just getting in shape, getting our bodies used to rolling around. Kids come out of football, cross country and volleyball, and it’s a completely different body motion,” Holterman said. “The first week, there’s a lot of soreness, but we’re working that out and getting the basics down. Once we get that out of the way, then we can move forward.”
Of the 20 boys on the team, five of them — Zander Peck, Dorien Cano, Blake Roberts, Connor Power and Jacob Scott — competed at the Tacoma Dome last winter as Rainier took sixth place out of 39 schools. Peck was the highest placer for Rainier last year, finishing as the 157-pound division runner-up. He earned two victories before falling to champion Jared Haden from Chewelah.
While the second-place medal was a significant accomplishment, Peck has worked relentlessly to improve in every aspect in order to become Rainier’s first state champion wrestler since Curtis Lentz in 2017 and just the fourth in school history.
Over the summer, he bulked up to 190 pounds. Peck traveled with his parents to multiple wrestling camps across the United States, including the Kyle Snyder and Joey McKenna wrestling camp in Oregon and the Jeff Jordan State Champ Camp in Ohio. He also used the fall season to compete in cross country to work on his cardio and lose weight in preparation for the wrestling season.
“I’m feeling strong. That was the entire goal of the summer was so I could get stronger for this wrestling season because I’m trying to make the most of this last season,” Peck said. “I feel like my regular season is gonna be a lot better this year because I put in so much extra work with the lifting and the cardio and the camps. All of that together has made it so I feel like a very well-rounded wrestler.”
Peck has just one thing on his mind this year: dominate.
“That’s my goal. I want to be able to go out and be unstoppable,” he said. “Last year, I remember people telling me, ‘I really don’t want to wrestle you. You’re so strong.’ I want to be stronger than that. I want to make them fear me in a way. If you’re wrestling me on the other side of the mat, you’re my enemy.”
Along with his individual goals to become a state champion, Peck is filling a large leadership gap left by 2024 graduates and state performers Ryder Cruse, Matthew Kenney and Rudy Garcia. Cruse in particular was a vocal leader that Peck looked up to, and he is relishing in the opportunity to be the kind of leader he had for a boys group inspired to join him at the Tacoma Dome in February.
“Zander is not really out in front of everybody with a lot of vocalness, but he’s a real solid leader. The kids follow him just because of who he is,” Holterman said. “He’s got such a good level head on his shoulders. I might be as excited to watch him wrestle as he is to get out there and wrestle just because I want to see him go.”
Holterman said the experienced boys have encouraged the less experienced boys through their work ethic in practice.
“Just having the experience of being there [at state], you’ve got a taste of it. You’re a little bit hungrier because you want to make it back, so that makes you a little more motivated,” he said. “That also encourages the kids that didn’t make it [to state] because they’re talking it up and telling people about how great state is. It motivates them as an individual, but it also helps motivate their teammates because it encourages them to strive to get there.”
Keira Anderson was the top girls placer for Rainier at state last year with a sixth-place finish in the 170-pound division. She, along with fourth-place medalist and 2024 graduate Katherine Kinahan, were the first female medal winners for Rainier since 2010. Ryleigh Cruse also attended as a freshman alternate.
Anderson is motivated to reach or surpass Kinahan’s program-record fourth-place finish, and she’s working on closing the gap in the weeks leading up to the season.
“I really need to work on my takedowns and really push myself in practice. I pushed myself last year, but I need to take the next step and push myself even harder,” she said. “I need to be more confident in my abilities. Confidence is a big thing for me.”
Only three of the 13 or 14 girls on this year’s team are newcomers. Anderson believes the squad has a chance to send five or six wrestlers to state, and based on what he’s seen in practice, Holterman concurs.
“They’ve been on the mat, and they know what it’s all about. Keira’s a good leader, and Ryleigh and Chloe Willis were solid all year,” he said. “They beat each other back and forth, and Ryleigh beat her at the end to go to state. They battle and they like to have fun. Nobody wants to be on a team where it’s just a grind every day.”
For the Mountaineers to send another handful of wrestlers to the Mat Classic XXXVI, they will have to grind through a grueling tournament schedule that includes shared trips to Napavine, Forks, Chief Sealth and Puyallup high schools. Rainier has a great chance to do so with the recent format changes to the Mat Classic, which will see expanded brackets in 2025.
“There’s probably gonna be some kids there that wouldn’t have made it otherwise, but I also feel like that’s stuff that builds our program,” Holterman said. “I don’t think we’re gonna coach it any differently just because we can get more kids to state. You’re still gonna have to beat a bunch of kids when you get there.”
The first event for both teams is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 7, with the boys heading to Chief Sealth High School for the Return of the Seahawk and the girls traveling to Ocosta High School to compete in the Wildcat Invite.
Each team will host one event, along with a shared league mixer at RHS on Jan. 23. The girls will host the Lady Mountaineer Invitational on Dec. 21, and the boys will compete in the annual Sgt. Justin Norton tournament on Jan. 11.
