They use different techniques, different moves. Typically, Logan Pine pins his opponents. Trevor Shaw doesn’t give up easy points. And Patrick Flannery often throws his opponent, using a move called the wizard to get a takedown.
But while their methods vary, the results are usually the same for these three seniors on Olympia High School’s wrestling team. They’re winners. With a combined 87 wins, all three wrestlers are on track to return to the 4A state tournament in the Tacoma Dome.
“Trevor’s smart,” said Greg Hargrave, Olympia’s wrestling coach. “He just doesn’t give up easy points. His matches are always close.”
Flannery, who wrestles at 182 pounds, is relentless is his pursuit of the takedown.
“Patrick has the best wizard in the state,” Hargrave said. “He has his arm locked around you and throws you. He’s a Gumby.”
Pine is simply a pinner. Of the 32 opponents he’s wrestled this season, he’s pinned 27. His overall record is 31-1 at 145 pounds, losing only to an opponent from Battle Ground who is a national freestyle champ.
“Logan is ranked fifth in state, Trevor is sixth and Patrick is fourth,” Hargrave said. “They’ve had great years.”
Last year, four Bears qualified for state. Besides Pine, Shaw and Flannery, Lane Pannkuk, now a junior, was the fourth state qualifier. With an all-time best 14 wrestlers and two alternates qualifying for regionals, Olympia is likely going to qualify the most wrestlers in school history for state.
“It’s been a good year,” said Hargrave, who had 55 wrestlers turnout this year. “They’ve made lots of improvement.”
As seniors, there’s no tomorrow, for Pine, Shaw and Flannery. To make the most of their last chance, they all pushed hard during the off season, preparing for the final hurrah.
“I worked pretty hard in the off season,” Pine said.
Carrying a 45-pound weight above his head, Pine either ran the stairs at the school’s stadium or he ran 100-yard sprints on the track. Besides the hard conditioning, Pine has also taken a different approach on the mat.
“This year I’m a lot more mature on the mat,” Pine said. “I have better mat awareness.”
Despite all his pins, pinning his opponent isn’t his objective.
“My objective is always to score first,” Pine said. “You score first and score fast. If you score first, they’re going to have to adjust to you. Then they have to play catch up.”
Then an opponent is more likely to make a mistake.
Pine is hardly a rookie when it comes to wrestling. He started wrestling with Mat Rats when he was five. He has a strong wrestling heritage. His dad, Pat, and his uncles were all state wrestling champs at Elma High School. Now, Pine has the opportunity to wrestle in college next year, possibly at New Mexico or Colorado State.
Unlike Pine, Flannery was a late comer to wrestling. He started wrestling in eighth grade, finally giving in to his mom’s suggestion.
“My mom was telling me to wrestling in seventh grade,” Flannery said. “I didn’t know anything about it and I didn’t want to do it. She brought it up again in eighth grade. I said okay I guess I’ll wrestle, and I really liked it.”
Both Flannery and Shaw have had successful seasons in their final run in high school wrestling. They’ve both won 28 matches. Shaw wanted to make sure his final run was his best. He’s always liked the roughness of the sport.
“The cool thing about wrestling is you can beat the crap out of a kid,” Shaw said with a laugh when asked about what he liked about wrestling. “You’ve got to be mentally tough.”
Like Shaw, Flannery is drawn to the physical challenge of wrestling.
“There’s nothing really this physical,” Flannery said. “Five days a week, six days a week, you push yourself. There’s something really nice about being exhausted at the end of every day.”
This Olympia team is truly a family. There are two sets of brothers on the team, including twins Chase and Chaz Poston. Both qualified for regionals at 106 pounds. The Pannkuk brothers, Lane and Wyatt, are also strong competitors. Lane, who placed seventh at state last year, is wrestling at 138 pounds, and his brother is wrestling at 160.
After wrestling at 113 pounds, Chase moved down a weight class where he feels he’s got his best shot at making it to state. At practice, these two identical twins are wrestling partners.
“You can’t tell them apart,” Hargrave said. Then he added with a chuckle, “One is getting more beat up on the face than the other.”
In the top three weight classes, going from 195 to 220 to 285, Olympia placed fourth. That means Michael Mantallo (195), Noa Peralta (220) and Valor Pettis (285) all face the same challenge.
“The one bad thing is they all get a number one seed for their first match,” Hargrave said.
In 2008, Olympia qualified five wrestlers to state – four boys and a girl – setting a school best.
“We’ll be disappointed if we don’t send more,” said Hargrave, who is in his fifth season as head coach after taking over for Rocky Isley.
The other regional qualifiers for the Bears are Jonah Argers (138), Haily Henry (115), Haily Genster (120) and Karlee Mosser (190). The two alternates were Gabe Peterson (152) and Michael Haong (113).
