Gig Harbor High senior wrestlers Ball, Flynn place at Mat Classic XXXI
In his final high school wrestling season, Gig Harbor High School senior Zayne Ball earned his best finish yet at the Mat Classic XXXI state tournament.
Ball earned a third-place finish in the Class 3A 170-pound weight class to cap off his high school career.
“I was a little disappointed not to take first, but overall, I’m just really happy with the finish,” he said. “Coming back through after losing second one was really tough. It was a long, hard road.”
After winning his opening round match, Ball was pinned by Marysville-Pillchuck’s Cayden White in the second match of the tournament.
Ball had wrestled White twice in the past, and had come out on the losing end both times.
“I knew it was going to be a tough match,” Ball said. “I tried to get prepared. I got caught in a cradle and couldn’t get out. It is what it is. I try to just keep moving forward.”
For whatever reason, White just had Ball’s number in high school wrestling. This time around, Ball started out strong, earning the first takedown and holding a 2-0 lead on points after the first round. But with Gig Harbor having not practiced much with the recent inclement weather, Ball started to fatigue.
“I started to gas out, honestly,” Ball said. “He’s insanely strong. Even though he’s a junior, he has really good defense.”
The loss meant Ball had plenty of work to do to come back and earn a podium spot. And Ball did just that, winning six consecutive matches after the loss to finish in third.
“It was tough,” Ball said. “It was a long road. I just took it match by match, looking at who would probably lose. I knew I could beat everyone in that bracket. I kept going through, just the mentality of taking it match by match. Every guy was tough. There were two matches that I won by one point in the last second.”
In Ball’s final match, against Rogers’ (Spokane) Tre Phillips, Ball won on a 7-6 decision, having to claw back to win the match, after being down three points going into the second round.
“I got a lucky throw, I jacked him up and got him to his back, which brought me up by two points heading into the third,” Ball said. “It was a pretty hard-pounding match for me.”
While there was no state title in Ball’s career, he’s proud of what he’s been able to accomplish as a Tide.
“I’m just really proud of myself, I give all glory to God,” Ball said. “I’ve wrestled since I was nine. I’ve dedicated a lot of years to this sport and I feel like it finally paid off. It’s the best I’ve ever done. I feel accomplished. Going through and having to go back through the bracket, I went through the hardest way I could. That’s something I can look back on and be proud of.”
While Ball has been a steady presence in the mat room for four years, his teammate Jake Flynn is a relative newcomer. Flynn, also a senior, also placed in this year’s Mat Classic, despite this being his first year of high school wrestling.
Flynn took fifth place in the 195-pound weight class. Flynn nearly wound up in the semifinals, too. In his quarterfinal match against Snohomish senior Ryan Douglas, both wrestlers were going back-and-forth scoring points until the final seconds off the match, when Douglas stood up to earn the final point and a 9-8 decision win.
“It was tough to drop that one,” Flynn said. “At the end, I thought I was up by a point. He got that escape there and it was pretty crushing.”
Flynn got the last laugh, though, as he ended up facing Douglas again just two matches later, in the fifth/sixth place match. This time around, Flynn pinned him.
“I hit a stand up and reached back,” Flynn said. “They tell you not to reach back in wrestling, but I did and it worked out. I grabbed his head, flipped him over and got a quick pin.”
While Flynn wrestled in middle school, he hadn’t wrestled for the high school team until this year, so taking fifth at Mat Classic was an impressive feat.
“I think I got a lot better,” Flynn said. “The coaches really pushed me throughout the year. I got my conditioning and cardio up and improved a lot.”
