TACOMA - It's not Jeremy Korthuis' fault if the thrill of achieving his childhood dream hadn't hit him five minutes after he won an individual state title Saturday night at the Tacoma Dome.
The Lynden star took all of 31 seconds to breakdown and pin Centralia's Kyzer Bailey.
Even after the referee's hand slapped the mat to indicate Korthuis' pin and all the buildup of competing in a state championship wrestling match was lifted off the Lynden senior's shoulders, Korthuis calmly walked to the middle of the mat to wait for his opponent for the traditional post-match handshake, as Lions coach Randy Anderson jumped out of his seat and threw his hands up in celebration.
"It feels ... It hasn't even hit me yet," Korthuis said. "This is the first match here that I've never been nervous for. I went through the match so many times in my head that it just instantly happened."
As he has done all season and all state tournament long, Korthuis quickly worked Bailey to the mat, promptly put him in a cradle and grabbed the win. And as Anderson put it, "The Centrailia kid didn't even know what hit him."
Anderson said Korthuis, who Anderson believed has a career record of 105-15, is the first Lynden state champion in the last 11 years and the only state champion in school history other than Randy Cueller.
Almost more impressive than Korthuis' speedy state title win is the way the Lynden senior has won all his matches this season.
Since he was a freshman, Korthuis has been forced to deal with shoulders that Anderson said, between football and wrestling this year, have been dislocated eight times.
"Just the last four years, my shoulders have been really rough," Korthuis said. "The last four weeks I haven't been able to shoot, so I've had to breakdown my opponents with my hands."
Even with the shoulder problems, Korthuis has managed to become the only Lynden wrestler in school history to place all four years (2009: eighth place, 2010: fifth place, 2011: third place, 2012: first place).
"I would like to take credit and say that I had a big part of (his winning state), but I've really only been around to make him run sprints and make sure he picks up his head gear," Anderson said.
