As the wrestling season comes to a close, several Garfield wrestlers are preparing to compete in the state tournament. One of those wrestlers is senior captain Lily Collet. This year, she placed 1st in both Metro League and Regionals, securing her spot in the upcoming state championship. Hadley Carscaddon, a sophomore wrestler, also managed to qualify for state. For Collet, this is nothing new, as she competed at state last year as well. With experience doesn’t come peace of mind, however, “Just because you’re doing good at metros does not mean that you’re good,” Collet said. Though she excelled in Metros and Regionals, she still recognizes that there is always room for improvement. A lot of the best wrestlers in the state come from places other than Seattle, making the state competition extremely competitive.

Collet described perseverance as a key skill in wrestling, and one she has been practicing. This rang especially true during a match that came to be her favorite wrestling memory. “In Sub-regionals…there was this one girl from Roosevelt who I’ve been losing to all season…I had to wrestle her and I came through, I was losing, but I came through at the end,” Collet described. In wrestling, a high-contact sport, maintaining composure even when under immense pressure is very important. Even outside of wrestling, perseverance is something that can help in many aspects. Collet believes that she learned some critical skills from wrestling that helped her in challenging moments. “There’s situations in a match where you can have a second to take a breath and think about what you’re doing,” she said. These skills have also helped her in her day-to-day life. “You need to know when [to] take a step back and just…think about the stuff you don’t always need.” She believes that even in her future, with or without wrestling, the skills she learned are invaluable.

Although Collet doesn’t necessarily plan to wrestle competitively in the future, she will always cherish her time wrestling at Garfield. When asked what kept her coming back to the wrestling team year after year, she cited the strong community as a major reason as to why. “I feel like having to wrestle each other every day, it brings us really close together.” Despite this being Collet’s last year wrestling at Garfield, she wants the team to continue to thrive after she’s gone. Wrestling is a sport that doesn’t get much attention at Garfield, so she knows that the prospect of joining the team hasn’t reached everybody at the school who could be interested. “You’re going to challenge yourself if you join the team … if you feel like you’ve tried sports before and you just haven’t found the one that’s for you, you might try wrestling because it’s a really good time.”