Yelm’s Toro World Club sees 10-placers inside Tacoma Dome at WSWA Folkstyle State Championships

Yelm-based Toro World Club (TWC) had a successful showing inside of the Tacoma Dome on Sunday, Feb. 22, in the WSWA Folkstyle State Championships, as the program placed 39th out of 144 total teams.

Ben Hawk, TWC head coach, was proud of the club’s wrestlers who stepped inside of the Tacoma Dome and competed for a chance to win a state championship. He noted that 29 total wrestlers competed in the tournament — including at least one wrestler in every age group from 6u to the open division.

“We did pretty dang good,” Hawk told the Nisqually Valley News. “We had one state champion, coach Rob Larson, who won the 97-kilogram adult division. We had 11 placers, including a runner up. It was a great showing.”

Members of TWC to place inside of the Tacoma Dome at the WSWA Folkstyle State Championships were: Emma Bunn, eight place, girls third grade through fifth grade 92-pound division; Everly Ryder, seventh place, girls sixth grade through eighth grade 87-pound division; Dani Sylva, seventh place, girls sixth grade through eighth grade 120-pound division; Rhett Shaw, sixth place, boys 10u 56-pound division; Caleb Stage, fifth place, boys 10u 105-pound division; Jayden Hipp, fourth place, boys 12u 82-pound division; Malia Hector, fourth place, girls third grade through fifth grade 92-pound division; Ben Hawk, third place, men’s 125-kilogram open division; Jasmine Manibusan, second place, girls kindergarten through second grade division; and Rob Larson, first place state champion, men’s 97-kilogram open division.

“We had six girls take medals home and five boys take medals home. It was a pretty good showing all day,” Hawk said. “In the 14u division, which is really tough, we had eight kids wrestle. That’s a lot for the middle school level. It’s essentially travel-level wrestling there. To have that many kids in that age group step up and prepare for their high school career by giving it one last go was a lot of fun.”

Hawk added that we was thrilled to see 29 members of TWC enter the tournament inside of the Tacoma Dome, and added that he hopes to grow that count by as many as 21 wrestlers next year.

“Having 29 TWC wrestlers enter the tournament, we had a few kids back out, but that’s the most we’ve ever had in there,” Hawk said. “Hopefully, by next year, we’ll have 40 to 50 wrestlers entered into the state tournament. It would be a statement to how much we put into this program if we did that.”

Hawk added that the number of participants allocated for each weight bracket filled up quick, and noted that he believes there were several TWC wrestlers at home “who could’ve done some damage” had they qualified for the state tournament.

“It was a fun season. We wrestled every single local tournament there was,” Hawk said. “We sent kids down to Oregon. We sent kids to Spokane, down to Ilwaco, all over the coast, up and down all the way to Snohomish. It was a fun season of folkstyle wrestling, and now, we’ve got a group of kids heading into the freestyle season. It will be a lot of fun seeing these kids grow up. Many of them will wrestle for me or (Tim) Beaudin at the high school. We also have a lot of kids from Rainier and Eatonville that wrestle with us too.”

Hawk added that TWC is trying to grow opportunities for youth in Yelm and surrounding cities to have something athletic to do. He noted the club is beginning to attract families from outside of the area to join — which is a trend he hopes to see continue.

The coach was also thrilled to see his team finish 39th overall out of 144 total teams present in the tournament.

“It’s pretty cool. I don’t know what we finished last year, but next year, the goal is to keep climbing that ladder,” Hawk said. “39 is pretty respectable as far as little kids wrestling at state and as big of a tournament it is. We’ll take top 40 every day of the week.”