Two Tacoma wrestlers from Mount Tahoma, Silas bring home Mat Classic XXXIII titles
Within moments of each other Saturday night at the Tacoma Dome, two Tacoma wrestlers brought the city state championships.
On one mat, Silas High School junior Elijah Cater capped an undefeated season by pinning his opponent in the second round of the Class 3A 120-pound final.
On another, Mount Tahoma sophomore Zeta Lee built an early lead in the Girls 110-pound title match, never let up and added on in the third round to win by a 9-0 major decision.
For both wrestlers, Mat Classic XXXIII was their first state appearance, and both wrapped up their impressive winter seasons by besting the top-ranked competitors in their brackets to stand atop the podium.
For their high schools, the titles both end championship droughts that have lasted decades.
Lee, in her first high school season at Mount Tahoma, also became the first wrestler from the school to ever win a title in the girls division.
She is also the second wrestler in Mount Tahoma’s history to win a state title, and the first in 50 years, joining Ron Gunns, who won a 4A title at 101 pounds in 1972.
Facing top-ranked Toppenish junior Mia Zuniga — who pinned her first three opponents of the meet — in the championship match, Lee scored quickly in the first round and never looked back.
She felt relieved, she said, when she brought Zuniga to the mat 12 seconds in, and earned the two takedown points, which turned out to be all she needed.
A reversal in the second round added to her lead, and another takedown and near fall in the third brought celebratory cheers from the crowd with a minute left.
When the whistle blew, Lee stood, tearing up as the referee raised her right hand in the air.
“I feel accomplished. I feel proud,” she said. “It was good experience. I’m proud to be the first girl at Mount Tahoma to win state.”
Following a first-round bye Friday morning, Lee opened her historic Mat Classic run with a decisive win over Stanwood’s Fiona Blair by technical fall in the second round. Later in the quarterfinals, she edged Sunnyside’s Alexxus Ramos by 5-4 decision to advance.
Then, in Saturday morning’s semifinals, she built an early lead on Rogers of Spokane’s Ellabelle Taylor, and held on late to reach the championship match by 5-2 decision.
“We’re proud of her, and we’re just speechless,” Mount Tahoma girls coach Anh Lam said.
Cater’s title win for Silas ends a nearly two-decade drought for the program in the boys brackets.
Flor Parker-Borrero (three titles from 2015-17) and Kathleen Flanagan (2018) both topped for the podium for the Rams in recent years in the girls division, but Cater is the first from to win in the boys division since 2003.
He joins a group of six former boys state champions for the Rams that includes Jeff Wood (1961), Dave Carl (1964), Frank Peters (1970), Cliff Stecker (1983), Tim Kitchen (1992) and Zedekiah Martin (2003).
Cater is also the first wrestler from a Tacoma Public Schools program to win a Mat Classic title in the boys division since Lincoln’s J.J. Dixon won back-to-back 3A championships in 2017-18 at 182 and then 195 pounds.
Like Lee, Cater brought home a state title in his first full high school season, and his first appearance at the Tacoma Dome.
Cater was also facing the top-ranked wrestler in his bracket in the championship match in University senior Tyler Walker, who had pinned each of his first three opponents leading up to the final.
Walker scored first in the final, too, taking Cater to the mat 19 seconds in, but Cater quickly escaped, scored twice more in the first minute, and never trailed again. He held a 10-4 lead by the end of the first period, and extended it to 12-4 midway through the second before he stuck Walker to the mat at the 2:45 mark.
“Once I flipped that switch and started to wrestle, I kind of knew I could use my speed, and being smart, I turned the match around, put him to his back,” he said. “Once I heard the ref slap the mat, I got all excited.”
Cater quickly popped up from the mat at the signal, and threw both hands in the air as he turned and pointed toward the crowd in celebration. His final win wrapped up a perfect 29-0 season.
“Winning state my first time here is a great feeling,” he said.
Cater had a first-round bye Friday before pinning North Thurston’s Tristan Valendo at 33 seconds in his first match and topping Prairie’s Lucas Lyle by 10-2 major decision in the quarterfinals. Saturday morning in the semifinals, he bested Yelm’s Jeffrey Myers by 10-5 decision to set up the meeting with Walker.
This story was originally published February 20, 2022 at 1:32 AM with the headline "Two Tacoma wrestlers from Mount Tahoma, Silas bring home Mat Classic XXXIII titles."
