One Port Townsend senior and one Chimacum junior won 2nd place at the State Wrestling Championships Mat Classic tournament on Feb. 21-22 at the Tacoma Dome, marking a record year for Jefferson County wrestling.

Dylan Tracer, a senior at Port Townsend High School, and Kyle Caldwell, a junior at Chimacum High School, won their first matches at the tournament on Feb. 21, which qualified them to wrestle in the state championship on Feb. 22, where they both placed 2nd in the state in their weight class.

“It’s the first time we’ve ever done that,” said coach Steve Grimm. “Port Townsend’s only had a state champ one time before.”

“I was super proud of them,” Grimm said. “That was our goal and we got there.”

Caldwell and Tracer were joined by five other students who qualified to compete in the Mat Classic tournament, including Chimacum sophomore Robbie Collier, Port Townsend seniors Ian Linn-Glasgow and Wesley Blue, Port Townsend junior Odin Smith, and Port Townsend sophomore Logan Massie.

“We have a great group of kids this year,” Grimm said. “Each tournament this season, even though we were a small team, we’d end up bringing home six or seven medals.”

Grimm hopes Tracer and Caldwell’s success this year will inspire the younger students on the team to hope for a win at state championships next year.

“Logan was one match away from getting a state medal, and he’s only a sophomore,” Grimm said. “Ian and Robbie fought the whole time, and that’s all you can ask for.”

Over the season, the team has spent nearly every weekend together, driving for hours to matches across the state and spending days training and cheering each other on.

“The thing I love about it is they have a tight bond, a camaraderie, that doesn’t exist in other sports,” said Dusty Massie, the father of wrestler Logan Massie who traveled to Tacoma to watch his son compete. “For some kids, after all that training, it can be emotional to lose in the end. But they support each other.”