TACOMA - Kara Ebergson left the mat, her eyes filled with tears, trying to come to grips with losing the 130-pound title match not moments earlier.
She had been pinned after 3 minutes and 45 seconds. Her season was over, her career was over.
But the sorrow was brief. Soon after she began to come to grips with the most memorable experience of her career. Especially since she had just become the highest placer of any Squalicum girls' wrestler in the program's history.
After that, the tears turned to a smile. Then it turned back to tears.
"It's more than I could ever ask for," Ebergson said. "I was definitely not expecting to be in the finals. It was amazing."
Ebergson fought all the way to the championship at Mat Classic XXIV on Saturday, Feb. 18, and earned second place. She didn't even make it past the first day last season. She was the lone girls' wrestler in the program for a majority of her four years.
It's only fitting that she ends her career also alone - alone as the only Storm girls' wrestler to ever place in the state tournament.
"To get her in the finals, that was huge for her. It was huge for all of us," Squalicum coach Russell Robinson said. "She can't look back on that and be upset. She just wanted to place. To win that semifinals match surpassed all our goals."
Ebergson rolled to wins in the opening round and the quarterfinals to make the second day of the Mat Classic, and the momentum didn't stop there. She opened Saturday with her semifinals match against Sunnyside's Abby Elizondo and pinned her in 4 minutes, 36 seconds.
Ebergson's secret was all in the singlet.
It was the same suit she had worn her first match of her freshman season. She stormed through this season, compiling a record of 24-7 and she wasn't about to abandon the singlet that had gotten her so far in the first place.
"Coach Robinson gave me a finals singlet and he said, 'Wear it if you want, but you don't have to,'" Ebergson said. "I went into the locker room to put it on, and I did, but it just didn't feel right. So I put my normal blue one on and it was perfect. It's been with me through everything. I told Russ, I wore it my first match and I'm wearing it in my last one."
The first-year coach wasn't about to tell her no.
While the singlet didn't bring her the same success it did on her improbable run to the championship match, she is content with that. It was the same one that she used as the lone girls' wrestler for so many years, she figured it deserved to be wither her for the end.
The end of a top-notch competitor, a pioneer and certainly a Squalicum legend - something Robinson had to come to grips with.
"She has been the only girl in our program for a long time," Robinson said. "She really blazed the trail and has opened the door for more to come."
