Yelm High School’s girls wrestling team is heating up for its 2025 postseason run, which will begin on Friday, Feb. 7, and Saturday, Feb. 8, in the South Puget Sound League championship tournament at Spanaway Lake High School.
For YHS girls wrestling head coach Ben Hawk, he believes the league tournament is occurring at the perfect time for his team. Led by senior team leaders Samantha Blank, Kylie Minker and Kaitlyn Dover, Hawk sees the looming postseason as a potentially fruitful period for his athletes.
“I feel like we’re dialed in. Some of the girls themselves told me they had the best matches of their season this weekend,” Hawk said. “They’re attacking. They’re scoring, and we’re still learning little lessons on how to win positions that score points. We score more points, we win more matches. We just look good everywhere we go. We seem to be able to pull out some big wins, and our big hitters just keep winning.”
His team split into two groups last weekend and competed in Curtis High School’s Berzerker tournament and North Mason High School’s Mascara Madness tournament. Though the team was cut in half to allow for all of the girls to compete in varsity matches, both lineups saw success on the mat.
Wrestlers Blank, Minker and Dover each placed first in their respective tournaments last weekend, while their teammate Olivia Kaiser placed second. Wrestlers Aurora Smith, Siena Venuto, Emma Brewer, and Destiny Mathews each placed fourth in their respective tournament brackets.
“We tried to separate so we don’t see a common opponent so often. It’s nice to make sure every girl gets a varsity position, and so we split up the team to make sure every girl is entered as a scoring wrestler. It turned out pretty good. We had three first place finishers, a second place finisher, and we had four fourth-place finishes too,” Hawk said. “Those were pretty tough tournaments. This time of year we hope to get healthy, and get our strategies down. We had some girls really show that they’ve been drilling hard with the stuff we’re working on. They believe the stuff we’re working on is going to pay off, it’s fun to see. They’re connecting the dots and finding success.”
With those two tournaments behind the Tornados, Yelm will spend this week preparing for the SPSL Championship Tournament this weekend at Spanaway Lake High School. He is expecting his three leaders, Blank, Minker and Dover, to lead the way throughout the SPSL tournament.
“We’ve got a league tournament coming up, and I feel like those three are going to lead the way. The rest of the girls will see how hard they’re working and that’ll help push them through. I feel like we’re going to put a good amount of girls through this league tournament and get them qualified for the state tournament,” Hawk said. “We’re going to run two rounds of the championship side, and two rounds of the consolation side to get it down so we can make sure we qualify all the way first through eight. The top seven placers in each weight will qualify, and it’s important to wrestle that seventh-eighth place match because we have alternates.”
Hawk said the team’s confidence is up and that the entire lineup is ready for the SPSL championship tournament.
“They see that across the board it’s not fun to line up against a girl from Yelm. We know. We can hear it from the other teams that we’re going to go get them. They see Yelm standing across from them, and they know we’re there to fight. It’s a good feeling,” Hawk said. “The girls can feel it around them that we’re a strong team. We’re a determined team, and we’re prepared to put it on the line. I’m excited. I think all of the girls are excited. They’re all ready to help get as many of these Tornados out to the Tacoma Dome.”
