Peninsula wrestlers Casey, Allen place at holiday tournaments

It’s been a good couple of weeks for Peninsula wrestling.

At the Pacific Coast Championship tournament in Vancouver over Christmas break, Nolan Casey finished second in the 160-pound weight class with four pins and Brock Allen finished fourth in the 120-pound weight class.

That was followed up by another win from Casey, who finished third at the Gut Check tournament in Kent early in the new year.

Much of the duo’s success comes from putting in hard work all year long.

“We had some offseason camps. We had team camp,” Casey said. “That was a good wake up call to start getting into wrestling shape.”

That work continued from the offseason into the regular season even extending into the holiday break.

“Just in the mat room, we don’t take days off. I think we had Christmas Eve and Christmas day off,” Casey said. “Other than that, we were every time in the mat room. Just don’t take days off. We’re still going after it even over break.”

Even with his strong finishes, Casey is hungry for that top spot and feels he got in his own way in his final round loss.

“It was definitely a learning experience for second place. I actually had beaten that guy last year and then this year I had psyched myself out, I think,” Casey said. “It’s just another wrestling match. I changed my wrestling to his because I was afraid of getting caught and that ended up costing me the match because I was being a little too careful.”

That loss has taught him that he needs to be confident and aggressive rather than getting intimidated into wrestling more defensively.

“I figured out from that that I’m going to do better if I’m going for it instead of being careful and hiding behind my defense,” Casey said.

Coach Gary Griffin had nothing but praise for his two top wrestlers and the mindset they bring to the team.

“Brock and Nolan put a lot in in the offseason to prepare themselves for these types of moments and I think it’s showing,” coach Gary Griffin said. “To really be successful, it’s what are you doing the other eight months of the year? It’s obvious who puts that in and those guys have really done that and embraced that.”

That success is something that he couldn’t take credit for and instead said that it all comes from what they bring to the table as competitors.

“They don’t let anything go. They fight tooth and nail to the end of everything,” Griffin said. “I think that kind of personality trait you can’t coach.”

Allen, while not finishing as high as his teammate, has been focusing on what he can do to improve his already strong performance.

“I’m just working on my conditioning a lot,” Allen said. “Just get my defense a lot better. Before I struggled with defending people’s shots and I need to get better at that. Now I know that I need to get better on getting off bottom and working my way up to my feet. Getting my escapes when I’m down.”

All that leaves him with high hopes for how the rest of the season will go.

“It’s not over yet but I’m definitely looking to have this be my best season. Obviously that’s the goal,” Allen said. “I’m looking to get a state title like every year. I just need to focus on the little things: what I eat, how I act, how much sleep I get, the work I’m putting in.”

This drive to succeed is shared by Casey who not only looks to do just as well but also get a leg up on his older brother, Isaac, by taking it all.

“You always look to state. It would be really nice to one up my brother and get first at state. That’s my main goal,” Casey said. “I’d love to see some of the other guys get into the placing rounds as state. It’s always a good motivation to keep the mat room intense.”

This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 6:00 AM.