Samantha Blank, a Yelm High School senior, has her sights set on bringing home a 4A state championship as a wrestler this season for the Tornados after coming up short in the 3A 135-pound state championship match earlier in the year — placing second inside the Tacoma Dome.
Blank has seen success inside the Tacoma Dome in the three years she’s competed in the YHS girls wrestling program. As a freshman, Blank took third overall at the annual state wrestling tournament and finished second on the podium as a sophomore and junior. As a senior, Blank has redemption on her mind and looks to achieve a 4A state championship victory in Yelm’s inaugural 4A season.
“Obviously my big goal for this season is to win a state championship,” Blank said Nov. 24. “I’ve been working on getting off of the bottom for the last several years, and that's a huge goal for this season. As a wrestler, there’s top, bottom and neutral. Whenever the whistle blows, the bottom person tries to get out, and the top person tries to hold them down and pin them. Being on the bottom, I need to work on getting out from the bottom.”
The Tornados girls wrestling program began practice on Monday, Nov. 16, and Blank said she and the team have been excited to be back on the mats together. In the team’s first week of practice under new head coach Ben Hawk, Blank said the girls learned a lot but had a good week of practice.
“Practice has been going well. We have a lot of new wrestlers, which is super exciting because I love seeing the program grow, especially as a girls program. It’s been a good week. There was a lot of learning,” Blank said. “Since it’s a fresh team, all that I can ask for is that we all grow, learn, take in the information we’re getting at practice and be happy with how we end up.”
Leading up to her dreams at the Mat Classic inside the Tacoma Dome, Blank said she’ll continuously be working on her mental aspect of wrestling. She believes a strong mental attitude can be sharpened by positive self-affirmations in practice and during matches.
Blank, a decorated judo competitor, recently traveled to Japan and competed in an “all-high school” national tournament for team Hawaii. She described the competition as being similar to the Mat Classic state tournament.
“You compete as a team rather than as an individual. It’s a really interesting aspect because it was something I wasn’t used to,” Blank said. “I got to go with the Hawaiian team to compete, and it was really cool. Other than that, I haven’t been doing too many competitions because it’s wrestling season and that takes up a lot of my time.”
Blank was also recently named 2024 Thurston County Sports Star of the Year in the girls category. The senior athlete said she was incredibly thankful and blessed to receive the honor.
“It was a huge accomplishment for me. One day I got an email, and I was wondering if it was a spam email. It said I was nominated for an award, and I questioned if it was even real. I was baffled, I told my parents first thing because they are my rock and stone. They support me with everything I do, and obviously I wanted to share the news with them first,” Blank said. “I showed up at the ceremony not thinking anything of it, but next thing I know they called my name. I couldn’t even put it into words. I was overjoyed. All of the work I put in was for something and was finally being recognized. It was definitely a moment for me.”
