When approaching the table to check in just moments before a state championship match, most wrestlers would describe their feelings as nervous or anxious with the anticipation. Rightfully so, as the AIA State Wrestling Championships are an extremely intimidating setting, as thousands of supporters sit above the wrestlers, looking down on the athletes like watching gladiators in an ancient coliseum.
Not Yuma Catholic’s Trenton Blomquist.
Feeling as loose, relaxed and confident as he’s ever felt, Blomquist calmly walked to his mat, checked in at the table and got in his stance across from his opponent.
Adding to his feelings of calmness and confidence was the support of the two figures in his corner: Blomquist’s father, Charlie, and his coach, Jeff Welsing. With the pair behind him and all the experience and faith in his craft in the world, Blomquist pinned his opponent in 38 seconds, claiming his second consecutive state championship.
As a senior, Blomquist wrestled to a 54-0 record. Over the past two years in high school competition, he’s won 119 matches and only lost one. In his final year of high school competition, he took first in four different wrestling tournaments against elite opponents from around the state of Arizona. He’s won two Yuma Sun/Yuma Rotary Club individual awards with 2022-23 Boys Wrestler of the Year and 2022-23 Male Athlete of the Year honors. This season, he’s got one more award to add to an already overflowing trophy case – Blomquist is the 2023-24 Yuma Sun/Yuma Rotary Club Boys Wrestler of the Year.
“He dominated his opponents and went undefeated with a pretty tough schedule this year,” Welsing said of Blomquist. “He pinned every guy except one opponent this year, whom I told him to (beat via) tech fall. Nobody scored a single point against him as well, which is just ridiculous.”
After the win, Blomquist hugged his father in an emotional embrace. Charlie Blomquist, an employee for UPS for over 20 years, successfully defeated an almost two-year bout with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma this past fall. Trenton was just a sophomore when his father was diagnosed. For a period of time, there was great uncertainty on if Charlie would endure his battle much longer.
With his father fighting cancer, Trenton used sports and fitness as an avenue of escape from the harsh realities of the world around him. The weight room, wrestling room and football field became safe spaces.
“Sports and working out became a way for me to get my mind off of things,” Blomquist said. “Even when I was in that space, I still thought about all the lessons my dad taught me – how I can’t give up, how I have to keep going and let no one stop me. I know how strong he is, so I had to be strong too.”
Blomquist had to be strong from an early age. When he was in the third grade, his parents enrolled him in middle school wrestling tournaments, wrestling boys at least two to three years older than him.
“He pushed me to go where most kids don’t want to,” Blomquist said of his dad. “He’d tell me wrestling those older kids was the only way to get better. I’d always cry and throw fits but I got through it and it did make me better… He taught me to have that desire to be great.”
In the season following Charlie’s diagnosis, Trenton wrestled to a 59-7 record, finishing third in the state championship. Welsing described his work ethic at that time in his All-Region Team submission form as, “relentless.”
After his junior football season, Blomquist began his 119-win, one-loss reign of terror. During this two-year stretch, he took seven out of eight total wins in some of the most prestigious tournaments held across the state.
When Blomquist finally won his first state championship in 2023, his father sat in his corner with Welsing, watching and coaching his son to victory. In February, Charlie sat in the corner with Welsing for his son’s second state title, this time cancer-free, beating his bout for good this past fall.
“Not every father and son get to experience something like that together, let alone twice,” Blomquist said. “It’s something that means a lot to me.”
Blomquist finishes his four-year YC wrestling career with an overall record of 192-13. His photo sits in the Shamrocks’ wrestling room as both a state champion and high school All-American, while his name also hangs in the gym. Twice selected to the 4A All-Conference First Team and a two-time state wrestling champion, he’s one of the best athletes to come through the school.
“I call him a 50-year type of guy,” Welsing said. “You only get a guy like him every 50 years. He’s got so much confidence and belief in himself that you don’t have to tell him much, you know he’s going to take care of business.”
Blomquist graduates this spring. College wrestling is a guarantee for him, but his destination is still yet to be decided. As he leaves YC, he hopes to be remembered for his work ethic.
“I just want to be known as a guy who works hard and doesn’t give his opponents second chances,” Blomquist said. “Be known as a good student, someone who works hard in everything he does.”
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By Mac Friday Sports Editor , www.yumasun.com
www.yumasun.com – Vivrr Local Results in sports/local_sports of type article , 2024-04-01 11:00:00
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