Five things to know with Stanwood girls wrestler Lindsey Crawford

In the Stanwood High School wrestling room, Lindsey Crawford is known as “Mama Bear.”

“She looks out for the other wrestlers and makes sure they’re taken care of,” said Todd Freeman, the Spartans’ girls coach. “She makes sure everyone has what they need or help with homework or whatever. She’s a real stickler as far as people being nice to each other goes. She’s a good rule follower — she wants people to do what’s right, and she’s not afraid to speak up.”

Crawford, a senior, placed eighth in the 145-pound division at Mat Classic last season.

Here are five things to know about Crawford:

1. She started wrestling as a freshman. “One day the boys wrestling coach, Ray Mather, saw me taking an interest in some team wrestling pictures from the past, and he said, ‘Hey, you should try it.’ I thought, ‘Well, I don’t have anything else going on, so I might as well give it a go.’ After my very first practice I didn’t think I would stick with it, but after I got my first takedown, first pin, first reversal, I was hooked.”

2. She’s struggled with confidence on the mat. “I used to stress myself out to no end before every single match,” Crawford said. “A lot of times that would be a big reason why I lost. I was so in my head, I couldn’t even wrestle. I’m proud of the fact that I was able to overcome that, for the most part, by relying on friends and coaches for support and being able to tell myself, ‘I want to (succeed) so bad that I’m not going to let these stupid things in my mind get in my way.’ It wasn’t easy, but I got there.”

3. She’s planning on going into the medical field. “I’d like to major in biology and kinesiology, then go to medical school at the University of Washington to become an osteopathic physician or family practitioner,” said Crawford, who’s applied to UW and Western Washington University for undergraduate studies. “I’ve always been interested in medicine, but I didn’t think I was going to (pursue it as a career) until I took a sports medicine class in high school. I like it because it’s practical — I’m an athlete, and everything we learn applies to athletes and what they have to do with their bodies to perform and recover. It’s personal and close to my heart.”

4. She placed 12th in the 2018 American Academic Competition Institute’s National Sports Medicine Competition. The competition, held last May, consisted of a 300-question exam that covered topics such as first aid, emergency procedures, medical terminology, physiology and anatomy, as well as a practical evaluation. “That was incredible. I wasn’t expecting (to finish that high) at all,” Crawford said. “I just studied and prepared and hoped for the best. It was cool to get to that point and have that experience. It was the highlight of my sports-medicine career.”

5. She likes to hike in her free time. “Last summer I went with a friend to Lake Twentytwo. It was incredible,” Crawford said. “It’s a hard hike, and at one point it seemed like it wouldn’t end. But when it did, it was totally worth it — a crystal clear lake surrounded by a ring of mountains. It was absolutely beautiful. I’ll have to make time to go there again next summer.”