Pint-sized wrestler ranked No. 1 nationally in the 55-pound
class
Five years ago, he was barely out of diapers. Today, Izzak
Olejnik is the No. 1 wrestler in the United States for his age and
weight class.
Pint-sized wrestler ranked No. 1 nationally in the 55-pound class
Five years ago, he was barely out of diapers. Today, Izzak Olejnik is the No. 1 wrestler in the United States for his age and weight class.
Olejnik earned the prestigious ranking after winning U.S.A. Wrestling’s National Tournament, which took place last week in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Olejnik competed in the 55-pound class in the 8-year-old division. The prestigious tournament is the only sanctioned event and is the governing body for determining All-American selections in the sport.
“The thing that makes you proud is that he works hard and takes it all so serious,” said Izzak’s father, Matt Olejnik, who coaches both the San Benito High School wrestling team and the Razorbacks club team. “He doesn’t screw around. He has fun too, but he works hard and he pays attention.”
The younger Olejnik wrestled folk style, which is the same style that is used at the collegiate level. In all, there were 24 kids in his class representing 14 states.
Olejnik’s trek to the title was an impressive one. After receiving a first-round bye based on the luck of the draw, it took Olejnik just 48 seconds to pin the reigning Illinois State champion in his opening match. From there, the young wrestler pinned the New York State champion before beating Wisconsin State champion Dylan Klemstein 7-1 in the semifinal match.
That victory set up his appearance in the championship match where he polished off Minnesota State Champion Kenny O’Neil 7-3 to win the coveted title.
“It was funny. He never really shows any emotion,” the elder Olejnik said. “When he won the final match he did a few double and single fist pumps. That’s when I knew how excited and fired up he was.”
Heading into the tournament, the boy was seeded sixth. His first round bye coupled with the upset of a few highly ranked wrestlers helped the young wrestler’s chances.
“I knew it was going to be a tough tournament,” said Izzak’s proud father afterwards. “I figured he would be able to place in the top eight.”
His son knew otherwise. In fact, he knew he was going to win it all after watching most of the competitors in action in the opening round.
“He was able to see most of the kids in his bracket. As we watched, he kept saying to me, ‘I can beat him. I can beat him. I can beat these guys. I can win the whole tournament.’ So after the first day, I was kind of expecting him to make the finals.”
The second grader from Ladd Lane Elementary School in Hollister first became interested in wrestling when he was just 3. Back then, he would go with his dad and sit on the wrestling mats as his father coached practices at the high school. A year later, Izzak was mimicking the high school kids and started working on rolls on the mats. By the time he turned 5, his dad started teaching him the sport. Last year was his first year competing; and this year, “he totally flourished,” according to his dad.
Although the national tournament was a long way from Hollister, the young wrestler had a decent fan base at the tournament as he and his father first flew to St. Louis, Mo. where they met up with his uncle John and his two older sons, who were also competing in the Iowa tournament.
After meeting up they all made the five-hour drive from St. Louis together. And after Izzak’s cousins were knocked out of the tournament in the early going, they became his rooting section.
“It was fun,” Izzak said. “I like wrestling.”
Izzak is clearly a chip off the old block, as his father almost made the U.S. Olympic team in 1988.
Although he didn’t have the same level of success at such an early age, the older Olejnik clearly passed on his “wrestling gene” to his son. A graduate of Cupertino High School in 1981, Matt captured the high school state championship his senior year in the 149-pound division.
The following year, he represented the United States in Hungary in an International Greco Roman tournament where he finished third. A few years later he was wrestling for Cal-State Bakersfield where he opted to transfer after San Jose State cancelled its program. While at Bakersfield, Olejnik took fourth in the National NCAA Division II Championships in the 150-pound division.
By 1988, he had his heart set on making the United States Olympic team. That year, he finished third in the 163-pound division at the U.S. Regional Tournament in Las Vegas, which was good enough to earn him a spot in the National Olympic Trials finals, which were held that year in Topeka, Kan. But as fate would have it he wouldn’t fulfill his dream after the bus he was riding in to make the tournament broke down during the drive from Williamsport, Penn. to Topeka. By the time the bus arrived for the national event, Olejnik, who was 170.5 pounds at the time, had just 45 minutes to shed 7.5 pounds to make weight.
Instead, he opted to give it a shot in the 180-pound division.
“At that time it was legal to use sauna suits to make weight, but I didn’t have enough time to lose that much,” he said. “So I was told we could either choose to not wrestle at all or move up a class and wrestle there. I came all that way and I had some sponsors, too. There was no way that I wasn’t going to wrestle that day.”
Overpowered in the heavier class, Olejnik still showed enough prowess on the mats to finish ninth. Unfortunately, only the winner in each class earned a trip that summer to the Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea.
Although his Olympic dreams are now long over, it’s clear that his only son might one day be in a similar situation.
“I’m very proud of him,” Olejnik said. “He is really flourishing out there and is excited to compete.”
