As an infant, Madeleine Wolczko was taken to her to her older brothers’ Rockbuster wrestling practices, where she would gleefully roll around on the mat.

“She was one of the young ones that did that and never stopped,” said Dave Chapman, girls wrestling coach at Vashon High School.

In the following years, Wolczko took after her brothers and threw herself into the sport of wrestling, fiercely committed to the extensive workouts and long practices required to find success on the mat.

Recently, Wolczko, now a senior at Vashon High School, became the fourth wrestler in Pirate history to place at the state wrestling tournament four years in a row when she took second place in the girls division. She is also the first girl from VHS to place four times.

“She’s always been a very talented wrestler. … She couldn’t be more proud of who she is and what she accomplished,” Chapman said.

In a sport dominated by boys, Wolczko seems like an unlikely wrestler, not only because of her gender but also her small stature and quiet and gentle demeanor.

Wolczko, at 115 pounds, is anything but gentle on the mat, though. To finish a winning wrestling season, she took down some of the top female wrestlers in the state, some of whom had never lost a match, to make it to the championship round at the tournament.

“You would not describe Madeleine as fierce competitor, because she as a person is kind of low key and humble,” Chapman said. “The truth is she is extremely focused. She had a goal, and she did everything in her power to attain that goal.”

Though Wolczko failed to take down her final opponent at state, she said she was thrilled at the way she ended her high school wrestling career.

“I think some people, like my brother, knew I was going to get first or second because he knew that I wanted it that bad, but I didn’t think I would make it to the finals,” she said. “It’s something that was kind of like a dream scenario in my head.”

Off the mat, Wolczko has an equally fascinating story. The teenager lived on a boat with her family until middle school and spent much of her childhood sailing with them, once taking a trip to New Zealand and back.

“My family has always been really water and boat oriented,” she said.

After graduation, Wolcz-ko plans to study maritime transportation at the California Naval Academy and one day enter the marine industry, another field largely dominated by men.

To add to her varied interests, Wolczko is a talented singer, songwriter and guitarist who frequently performs at open mics at VHS and sometimes at local venues.

As she looks to a bright future, Wolczko said she is sad to finish wrestling, an activity that has dominated her life until now.

“It’s going to be a huge change,” she said.

Through all her successes, Wolczko said her favorite part of wrestling was being part of a team that truly felt like a family.

“The people are all really awesome. … It’s a really close relationship that you develop in the team,” she said. “I’ll definitely come back for breaks from school and hang out in the wrestling room.”