The one that got away

Brandon Palaniuk is closing in on Lakeland High School’s career record for victories in wrestling. He most likely will win a fourth state medal. He most likely will advance to the state finals for a third consecutive year. He hopes to win a second state championship and his first in the 4A ranks. And he captured a title in the prestigious Tri-State tournament last month. It ranks as his best feat.

In other words, Brandon Palaniuk has built quite the high school resume. But wrestling is a distant second to his first love. In fact, he’s counting down the days until he can return to it.

Four days after his final state wrestling tournament, Palaniuk will head to one of the region’s area lakes and launch his 21-foot boat. Minutes after hitting the water, he’ll speed to one of his favorite haunts – a spot with either a partially submerged tree, a boat dock or an area with heavy weeds (he couldn’t tell exactly where that is because it’s a secret, naturally).

For Palaniuk, nothing ranks ahead of bass fishing. And fishing season in North Idaho begins March 1 – or 41 days from today.

“What do I love to do the most? Wrestling or fishing?” Palaniuk said repeating a reporter’s question. “It’s bass fishing for sure. I’ve been fishing ever since I could walk.”

Palaniuk hasn’t quite wrestled that long, but it seems like he has. Wrestling may be his second love, but from November through late February everything else takes a back seat – including fishing.

This year, Palaniuk started preparing for his senior season much earlier than usual. Much of his motivation came from a controversial end to his junior year.

A state champion at 112 pounds his sophomore season in Lakeland’s final year in the 3A ranks, Palaniuk earned the top seed to state last year at 125. But when he reached the finals, he ran into his equal – Dylan Whiting of Skyview.

Palaniuk scored a takedown in the first period, and he took a 2-0 lead into the middle round. He had the choice of starting in the neutral position, on top or on the bottom, and he deferred. Whiting chose down and scored a one-point escape. That’s where the score stood going into the final period. Palaniuk chose down, thinking he could wrap up the state title with an escape.

But Palaniuk suddenly became timid, and Whiting managed to score a two-point near fall when Palaniuk tried a reversal in which he paused momentarily, pivoting on his hips with his back near the mat. As the match concluded, the referee signaled back points for Whiting, allowing him to escape with a 3-2 victory.

Lakeland coach Rob Edelblute protested to no avail. Palaniuk thought the referee made a poor decision, but he also realized he shouldn’t have put himself in the position to lose.

“I learned that you can’t let a referee’s decision decide a match,” Palaniuk said. “The loss stuck with me until the beginning of this season. It haunted me through the summer.”

Life many times offers opportunities for redemption. Sure enough, Palaniuk got his last week when Skyview and Lakeland squared off in a dual the night before a tournament. Palaniuk moved up two weight classes to 135 this year and Whiting moved up just one. But he chose to bump up another weight to take on Palaniuk.

The rematch was like déjÀ vu all over again. Palaniuk scored a takedown in the first period. That held going into the second period, when Whiting scored an escape. Palaniuk chose down for the final 2 minutes, but this time he got an escape and a measure of revenge in a 3-1 decision.

“It was like a rerun,” Palaniuk said. “When we got to the third period, I thought, ‘I might as well choose down and keep the rerun going.’ … I kept running the state match back in my head. It wasn’t good, but I couldn’t help it. I always knew I could have won last year. I didn’t wrestle as well as I should have. Beating him was more something I needed to prove to myself.”

Said Edelblute: “It was pretty exciting. It was like the state finals again. It gave Brandon some closure.”

At Tri-State, Palaniuk was seeded fourth. He upset top-seeded Levi Jones of Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls) 9-8 in double overtime in the semifinals and used a takedown in the final 10 seconds to beat Lucas Chesher of Central Valley 3-2 in the finals.

Edelblute thought the key to Palaniuk winning at Tri-State was his condition. Palaniuk spent three months this fall working out with a hired trainer.

Palaniuk is 24-1 this season, his loss coming in the finals in the season-opening Inland Empire Classic at CV. He’s nine wins away from the school record of 133 victories set by Clint Leonard (133-8). With at least 20 matches remaining, including state, Palaniuk should cruise part Leonard’s record.

He hasn’t closed the door on wrestling in college, but no schools have expressed interest thus far, he said.

So Palaniuk, who currently has a handful of sponsors for some bass tournaments this spring and summer, is hoping to make a living some day as a professional angler.

He will spend two days during spring break trying to hook bass on a trip to Mexico. It’s the third time in high school he’s made the trip.

It’s difficult for him to compare a good fishing day with winning a state title in wrestling.

After all, he’s had days where he’s landed 100 or more fish. No lying.

Have no doubt, though, Palaniuk is focused on what he’s doing.

“I knew that if I wanted to be a state champ again that I’d have to be in the best shape possible,” he said.

He doesn’t want to leave any doubt – as he did last year.

“It’s one thing if a guy is better and beats you, but when you don’t go all out you’ll always have those ‘what ifs,’ ” he said.

Win or lose, Palaniuk will make sure there’s nothing left in his tank when the final whistle is blown.