SPORTS

ORTING'S MEEKS KEEPS WORKING TOWARD THIRD TITLE

By: Lyle Evansiano February 19, 2010

Taylor Meeks’ wrestling credentials at Orting High School stack up with the best the state of Washington has ever seen:

• He is the top-rated 189-pounder in the state.

• He is ranked in the top 10 by most national publications.

• He has signed with Oregon State on a near-full scholarship.

• If things go as expected, The News Tribune’s 2010 All-Area wrestler of the year will win his third Class 1A state championship Saturday night at Mat Classic XXII in the Tacoma Dome.

• The numbers are in his favor. He hasn’t lost to an state wrestler in three seasons.

An easygoing walk in the park? On the surface, it seems as if the soft-spoken Meeks was born a natural – a phenom-in-the-making.

Not to bemuse the bottom line on Meeks, but he’s proof that even the best wrestlers around are rarely born into a world of supremacy. They make their own lot.

“I’ve been around wrestling for 35 years,” Orting coach Mike Sowards said. “I haven’t seen a harder-working kid.”

Yet, even Meeks has had his stumbling points.

He was in kindergarten when a flier went around school asking boys to come out for the Orting junior wrestling program. He picked one up, took it home and asked his father, Mike, if he could give it a try.

“I had tried karate,” Meeks said. “But I was kicked out of it when I kicked a kid too hard.”

In his first season of youth wrestling, Meeks not only lost every varsity match he competed in, he was pinned in all of them.

Yet, the string of defeats didn’t stifle his spirit for the sport.

“I remember when he was in third grade, and there was a little league tournament in Orting,” Sowards said. “I was sitting next to him in the stands, and he kept asking me about wrestling.

“All I could think to myself was, ‘How could a third-grader be this interested in one sport?’ I mean, he knew everything about our high school team.”

It wasn’t until Meeks was a year away from joining the Orting High squad that Sowards was convinced the teenager would make it big. One day, the coach went up to Vision Quest Training Center in Auburn and watched Meeks, then an eighth-grader, take on the likes of Auburn Riverside’s Mike Mangrum and Battle Ground’s Trevor Hall in live sparring.

“He would go out there and get his butt kicked. Tears were coming down his face,” Sowards said. “But he’d jump back in there. That’s when I knew he had the ‘it’ factor. I knew he’d be a (NCAA) Division I wrestler some day.”

Those hard-knock lessons benefited the up-and-comer most.

“I remember me and Michael (Mangrum), we would brawl out there,” Meeks said. “And every day, we’d go on 4-mile runs, then train for an hour. That’s when we were young. And I’m very appreciative of doing that, because it made me a better wrestler.”

A third Mat Classic title is important. Equal to that feat would be leading the Cardinals to a dominant team performance.

For years, Orting had been knocking on the door of a 1A state title. Last season, it happened. And this weekend, it should happen again.

Meeks and Garrett Mann, both two-time state champions, have been primarily responsible for elevating the Cardinals’ level of performance. They’re seniors and have been the ones setting the example since they were leaders of the junior program.

“I think we followed what the other seniors did pretty well,” Meeks said. “And we’ve definitely raised the bar a little higher.”

Original Article in Tacoma News Tribune

DEAN J. KOEPFLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER - Taylor Meeks has two goals at Mat Classic: to win his third state title and to help Orting win its second straight 1A team title.