Beau Wiebe has been wrestling for nine years, and that experience is taking him to the state championship this year.

“I’m very excited for state and anxious at the same time. I’ll be ready for this tournament,” Wiebe said. “I have been pushing myself in practice because I [have] one season left, and it’s this year.”

He competed at state in Tacoma on Feb. 16 and 17 where he won third place.

The 18-year-old Orcas Island High School senior wrestles for the Friday Harbor High School wrestling team because Orcas does not have one. Wiebe and his family moved to Orcas last year.

“He’s had to hitchhike rides and take multiple ferries just to get there and back,” said Matthew, Beau’s dad. “It’s been tough between him juggling work, getting his studies done and getting to practice, but he’s done the best that he could, even running and doing other things to condition his body for the grind.”

Since starting in 2009, Wiebe has wrestled freestyle and Greco Roman and has won state champion honors in both of those disciplines, said Matthew. He even made it as far as taking fourth place at a national competition in Utah in 2014.

“I wrestle because there is no other competition more competitive and more intense than wrestling,” he said.

Wiebe placed first in his weight class of 132 on Saturday, Feb. 10 at the regional wrestling tournament, following a first-place win in the district’s competition.

“It’s been a real blessing getting to watch him all these years. He’s worked so hard to get to this point. … Just to be able to see him out there one last time will be special for me,” Matthew said. “It doesn’t matter to me how he ends his season, or what place he gets, because I know he’s worked his hardest to get to this point, and I couldn’t be more proud as his dad to see him now as a senior.”