It’s Saturday, Feb. 22 under the lights of the Tacoma Dome, and Vashon’s Lena Puz is singing and dancing on the wrestling mat, preparing for the match that will crown a champion.

Her opponent is Kaylie Baker of South Whidbey High School, a rival who has defeated and pinned Lena twice this season.

Lena is nervous but excited. She knows how Kaylie wrestles and has practiced for weeks with her coaches to avoid getting pinned again, here at the state championships.

“We know the rivalry between these two, and we knew from the first time Lena wrestled her that she could beat her,” recalled teammate Alara Demir. “The Vashon crowd [was] cheering and chanting. The whole stadium could probably hear it.”

Kaylie started the match aggressively, as Lena knew she would, and the Vashon wrestler said she took “a really poor shot” — a less than perfect attempt at a takedown — putting the two into a scramble.

Kaylie got on top, trying to wear Lena down. But Lena survived the attack and pulled a reversal, ending the first period.

“I saw the shot, and I was like, ‘Oh no, Lena.’ But the scrapping, the wrestling, the gears in Lena’s head were churning,” Demir said.

With momentum in her step, Lena came out strong and pinned the South Whidbey wrestler in the second period — and suddenly, Puz was the state 1A/1B/2A girls 145-pound wrestling champion.

“We all erupted,” Demir said, “screaming our heads off … it was just a crazy moment.”

Girls team coach Jan Martin Nielsen’s voice shakes with emotion when he remembers the moment. And coach Anders Blomgren gets chills remembering the moment, as he and the other coaches — including his brother Per Lars Blomgren — watched from behind the gate to the floor.

“My brother leaps over the gate, I leap over the gate,” he said. “We ran over there … her just bawling. Her dad, he’s a pretty stoic individual … all of a sudden he starts crying … [and] our fans are just going crazy.”

Lena Puz celebrates her win over South Whidbey’s Kaylie Baker at the Mat Classic state wrestling championships. (Tony Puz photo)

It’s the first time a Vashon girl has clinched a state wrestling championship in 17 years, said Blomgren.

Vashon sent ten wrestlers last weekend to the Mat Classic, the annual and highest state-level competition for high school wrestlers. In addition to Lena’s win, wrestler Alara Demir took fifth place in her division and Hazel Nielsen was just one match away from cracking the top eight. All three are juniors who will likely return to the program next season. (For more on the team’s performance, see this week’s sports section.)

Demir is tough on herself for losing her semifinal round — which was against the top-seeded girl in her bracket — but the wrestler bounced back from the frustration of that match to ultimately take fifth place with the help of encouragement from her coaches.

Vashon’s Alara Demir, who took fifth in her division, wrestles at the Mat Classic tournament. (Tony Puz photo)

It’s a lesson that many coaches echoed: Failure and adversity builds better wrestlers.

Getting pinned, for example, can mean swift defeat at the hands of your opponent. With your shoulders held down to the mat, it’s a vulnerable, restrained position that can produce anxiety and even panic for wrestlers, lighting up the parts of our brains that have evolved to do anything and everything to escape the clutches of a hungry predator or assailant.

So facing the girl who’d pinned her twice, under the spotlight and the roaring crowds of the Tacoma Dome, was an important moment for Lena, her parents said.

“I think being pinned by anyone, but being pinned by that girl [in particular], made her a better wrestler,” Susan Puz said.

“There’s nowhere to hide when you’re on the wrestling mat,” Tony Puz said. “That’s the thing about wrestlers. You have to have the guts to actually go out on the mat.”

Finding humor and camaraderie has helped the team stay resilient and avoid fracturing into cliques, the girls said.

“Our team, especially this year, has grown to help each other and build each other up when we’re feeling the most down on ourselves,” Lena said.

Also helpful: Travelling to more tournaments with boys and girls. Usually they’ve only attended one mixed-gender tournament, the girls said; this year they attended four.

“When you’re stuck with the stinky boys for 17 hours, it makes you close,” Hazel Nielsen said.

For a young team that had to find its footing early on this season, the growth this year has been by leaps and bounds. The girls squad placed first in the district tournament, and both the boys and girls teams received the district sportsmanship of the year award.

“I’m really impressed with our team,” coach Jan Martin Nielsen said. “We’ve come so far. From losing so many matches, to 10 of us going to state — and three alternates — is absolutely crazy.”

That includes wrestlers Oliver Pickney and Johnny Joyce, who made it to state despite this being their first year wrestling.

Lena took fifth place at the Mat Classic last year. Going into this season, she was already “an amazing athlete,” coach Jan Martin Nielsen said, “and she can overcome a lot.”

Alara, similarly, saw her own technique and ability to handle opponents go “through the roof” this year, he said: “She’s been working really, really hard. … She does the little things right. … Her technique is awesome to watch. She’s getting after it with her teeth grit real hard.”

Junior Lena Puz embraces her father and coach, Tony Puz, just after winning her final match and clinching the state championship at the Mat Classic. Also in the photo, from left to right: Coaches Per-Lars Blomgren, Jan Martin Nielsen, Anders Blomgren, and Stephen Murphy. (Jim Meyerhoff, WIAA photo)