Road to state
Clete Hanson got there last year.
The East Valley junior reached the final wrestling match of the 2005-06 high school season in his weight class, the State 3A, 171-pound championship match. The spotlight match. The match every wrestler dreams of reaching and winning.
And then he lost.
“That hurts so bad,” Hanson said. “To get there and not win is the emptiest feeling you can have. Brian Owen, the University wrestler, told me one time that everyone who gets to the championship match feels they should win. You can be a 100-to-1 long shot, but if you get yourself to the championship match, you feel like you should win.”
That’s one of the great ironies of Mat Classic, the state wrestling tournament. The loneliest spot in a Tacoma Dome full of wrestlers and wrestling fans is the second-to-last step on the awards platform.
Hanson wasn’t seeded to win as a sophomore. In fact, he entered the state tournament as the No. 3 seed from his region after being upset in the regional semifinals.
“I was wrestling a guy I’d beaten before and he got me on my back,” Hanson said. “I hadn’t given up back points all year, and there I was, on my back. I tried to battle back, but I couldn’t do it and I had to regroup.
“The thing is, when you lose a match like that, you tend to get conservative because you don’t want to lose. That’s not a good idea because that’s not how you got there in the first place. But I learned from that.”
The lessons have served the son of East Valley coach Craig Hanson well.
In the finals of the Pacific Northwest Classic tournament at University, Hanson trailed Lakeside’s Reid Chivers going into the final minute of a battle of All-America freestylers.
Hanson, who wrestles with a cool, relentless style, took the lead with a takedown and added a near-fall to win the tournament title, 8-4.
“You can’t panic in a situation like that,” Hanson said. “A minute is still a lot of time. You have to keep working. I don’t rush until the clock gets down under 15 seconds. Then you have to make something happen.”
Hanson is now at 100 percent heading into this weekend’s subregional tournament at East Valley. A broken ankle suffered during football season slowed his training early.
“It really kept me from running, so my conditioning was off at the start of the season,” he said. “And it made me a little tentative in a match. When you have a broken bone like that, you unconsciously try to protect it.
“Now, I don’t even think about it and my conditioning is right where it should be.”
This week marks the shift in the high school season. Dual matches are over; every wrestler is aiming for the weekend – fighting to stay alive for one more week.
“Dual matches are all about the team,” Hanson said. “You’re pulling for your teammates and watching their matches. But now, you have to get away from that. You have to concentrate on yourself and your match. You’re happy for your teammates when they win and you want them to win. But it’s different. We’re all thinking about getting to state.”
Hanson’s road to state is clear. In a ranking of all state wrestlers at each weight class, Hanson is No. 3 at 171.
Unfortunately, the two wrestlers ranked ahead of him also wrestle in 3A, making 171 one of the toughest weight classes in the state.
It may not sound like a lot, but Hanson comes into the postseason heavier than a year ago.
“Last year I was a light 171-pounder,” he said. “I wasn’t wrestling up a lot, but I weighed in at about 168 most days. I didn’t have to cut weight to make a tournament. This year, I weigh in at about 177 most days and have to cut a few pounds to make weight.
“It’s not something you consciously think about, but in the back of your mind, you know you’re going up against guys who are heavier than you and stronger than you. That’s not the case this year.”
The Knights have a powerful group of upper-weight wrestlers: Dakota Lawson at 160, Hanson at 171, Dan Michalski at 189, Jimmy Martin at 215 and Nic Weyrauch at heavyweight.
Where East Valley has improved is in the lower weights – which powered the team to a dual match victory over University.
“I know he’s my dad and everything, but he has done a great job bringing on our little guys,” Hanson said. “I have to give the coach his props.”