TACOMA — When it came to Malia Ottow’s performance at Mat Classic XXXVII in the Tacoma Dome on Friday compared to last year’s tournament, much was the same.
The Snohomish junior captured the 3A Girls 120 Championship as the top seed in the bracket, ripping through each round with authority just as she did one year ago as a sophomore in the Girls 3A 115. Just like last year, Ottow finished the season undefeated.
However, there was one distinct difference. In clinching the title last year, Ottow was overcome with emotion. The final whistle had not even blown before the tears started flowing.
“The last 10 seconds, I had known ‘She is not going to get it. I won,’” Ottow told The Herald moments after winning the 3A Girls 115 Championship over Kelso’s Kamiah Gaerlan on Feb. 21, 2025. “I couldn’t even hold in the tears before the whistle blew. The match isn’t even over and I was already crying.”
This time, it was the complete opposite reaction.
After rising from the mat from her final takedown, which secured the 19-3 win via technical fall at 3:11, Ottow was stone-faced. The muted, business-as-usual reaction looked like she had picked up a dual meet win on a Tuesday night, far from becoming a back-to-back state champion.
As many similarities as there are between this year and last, Ottow’s mentality has shifted entirely.
“I expect this. I don’t come in here thinking, ‘Oh I hope I win.’ I’m expecting to win,” Ottow said on Friday. “And if I don’t, that’s underperforming and I need to fix it. To me, it’s a big deal, yeah, but that’s not what I want. I want a national title, not just a state title, so just working towards that.”
With both parents, Jordan and Stephanie Ottow, in her corner as two of her coaches, Ottow grew up with the sport. Her dominance is nothing new, but she continues to impress her parents with every victory.
“We’re both very competitive. We try to instill that in all our kids, but she’s definitely the one child that takes it to heart,” Stephanie Ottow said. “So super proud of her. We don’t expect her to win (like she does). We just want her to go out there and have fun and do her best, but she always, always goes over the top. Overachiever for sure. We’re super proud.”
From start to finish in the championship match against Southridge’s Lexi Allen, Ottow was clinical. She picked up a quick three points with a takedown just 22 seconds in and wrapped her arms around Allen, trying to flip her into a near fall. Ottow took her time getting her arms in the right spot, maintaining full control the whole time before getting Allen on her back for a four-point near fall to take a 7-0 lead through Period 1.
At that point, it became a full showcase. Ottow racked up takedown after takedown, flipping Allen over her shoulders to make it 10-0 just 11 seconds into Period 2 before putting three more together. Each time Allen scored a point for an escape, Ottow put her back on the mat within 10-15 seconds. In just three-and-a-half minutes, it was over.
“Just wanting to score points and show how much of a dominant wrestler I can be,” Ottow said. “That was my main goal going out there.”
Over the past year, Ottow has completely evolved in her techniques, according to Stephanie Ottow. Working with coach Mason Phillips — a three-time state champion at Stanwood with an 85-0 career record from 2016-2018 — over the summer, Malia Ottow practiced different positions and hammered down different ways to score points, making her a more complete, confident wrestler.
“Her scrambling is top-notch,” Stephanie Ottow said. “When someone takes a shot on her, she always knows how to get out of it. She’s thinking three steps ahead it seems like. If they do an offensive move, she’s got a defensive move, or vice versa. She’ll take a shot, she always seems to get on a leg. … Her style has completely changed.”
With an evolved technique and mindset leading her to back-to-back state titles, Ottow is turning her focus to the national stage. She’ll be competing at the U17 Pan American Trials in Iowa on March 6-7 before spending time training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. No matter where in the country she’ll be over the coming months, she plans to remain one step ahead of the competition.
“Just consistent training every day,” Ottow said. “Like two-to-three times a day, working out. Before school, after school, just doing whatever I can. Whatever people aren’t doing.”
Lynnwood’s Williams reaches Girls 3A 135 semifinals as 11-seed
As Brianna Williams returned to the center of the mat for the third period of the Girls 4A 135 semifinals, the Lynnwood junior received clear instructions from her coach, Gina Gallegos.
“You have to turn her,” Gallegos said, shouting to her.
Williams’ opponent, Kent Meridian’s Nevaeh Tantoco, had a 5-0 lead. With Williams starting the third at bottom, she would have to get Tantoco on her back to score enough points to get back into the mix. For nearly the entire two minutes, Williams tried to twist Tantoco over, applying as much pressure as she could, but the senior held her ground. Williams earned a point for Tantoco stalling with 17 seconds left, but Tantoco quickly managed to spin Williams down into a pin to end the match there.
Williams returned to her corner, where Gallegos greeted her with a big smile and a hug.
“You did awesome,” she said.
Of course, losing just shy of the championship round is painful for any wrestler, but the semifinal result did not take anything away from what Williams achieved at the Tacoma Dome. As the 11-seed in her bracket, Williams reached the final four, taking down two higher-seeded wrestlers in her path. And she did it all in just her second year in the sport.
Lynnwood’s Brianna Williams wrestles during the 3A girls 135-pound semifinal match at the Mat Classic on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026 in Tacoma, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
“She’s definitely found her focus and her commitment to herself in the sport,” Gallegos said. “She’s taken out some big names (on Day 1) to get herself in the semifinals as a second-year wrestler. I don’t know if you can ask for anything more.
Encouraged to start wrestling by her brother, Williams quickly picked up on the sport. She was instantly drawn in by the respect and camaraderie that it breeds between the competitors. In addition to getting along well with her Lynnwood teammates, she’s had positive experiences with opponents. After she lost at the District 1 3A Tournament, where she eventually ended up placing fifth in 135, a wrestler she had never met before from another team came up to give her tips.
“(It) was crazy, but really, really sweet,” Williams said. “I actually really appreciated it. … A lot of your opponents are also really kind and supportive.”
With the passion ignited right away, Williams qualified for Mat Classic last year in just her first season, but she lost both her opening round match and the following consolation match to go ‘two-and-out.’ It didn’t do much to help the imposter syndrome she felt her entire first season.
Williams remembers feeling overwhelmed by the stadium and the chaos of all the mats in action at once. It put her out of a good headspace, and it directly impacted her performance. This time around, with the prior Mat Classic experience under her belt, she run away with it.
“My main focus was to win at least one match,” Williams said. “(…) As long as I won one match, I’d be good. And so then I did win my first match, and then it was just kind of on a roll.”
Williams pinned Kelso’s Emery Tefft, the No. 22 seed, in just 1:27 to advance past Round 1. From there, she took down two higher-seeded opponents, pinning No. 6 Noelani Lee from Franklin in just 1:13 after building up a 16-3 lead before defeating No. 3 Hailey Carswell from Monroe in a 5-3 decision.
However, while her seeding may illicit comparisons to the George Mason’s and Loyola Chicago’s that etched their programs in March Madness history, Gallegos was hesitant to label Williams a ‘Cinderella’ of Mat Classic.
“I think she could have been seeded higher, but I don’t think she was seeded incorrectly overall, looking at the whole bracket, but we don’t care about seeding,” Gallegos said. “We don’t care about rankings. We don’t care about anything. We care about each individual match as they happen.”
Taking on Tantoco, the No. 2 seed, in the semifinals, Williams held out as long as she could. It took 5:48 for Tantoco to get the pin, and she only had a single takedown and reversal.
“I just need to be stronger,” Williams said. “In this most recent match (the semifinals), I think I just lost because I got too gassed.”
After entering the consolation bracket, Williams ended up taking home sixth place in the Girls 3A 135. She plans to spend time this offseason helping Gallegos coach the middle school team. In Gallegos’ eyes, Williams can serve as an inspirational figure for the next generation of Lynnwood wrestlers.
“Part of it is definitely being able to walk in and say, ‘I placed at state, and you can too. I’ve only wrestled two years, and you got the potential to wrestle four, five, six years,’ depending on what grade they’re in,” Gallegos said. “But Brianna’s just a very approachable upperclassman now as a junior, so these kids look up to the high schoolers when they get the opportunity to.”
— — — — — —
Area Girls 3A State Medalists
Championship matches:
115— Finley Houck (Shorewood) maj. dec. Kamiah Gaerlan (Kelso) 9-1; 120— Malia Ottow (Snohomish) tech. fall Lexi Allen (Southridge) 19-3; 155— Bailey Parker (Peninsula) pinned Caitronia Wieber (Everett) 2:32; 170— Lindsey Shipp (Peninsula) dec. Makayla Finch (Stanwood) 3-2; 235— Mia Cieniga (E) pinned Harleigh Cubbage-Thorp (Hermiston) 1:09.
4th place: Kyla Royce, Everett, 235.
5th place: Freya Schwabenbauer, Snohomish, 125.
6th place: Zoey Wilde, Stanwood, 125; Brianna Williams, Lynnwood, 135.
7th place: Hailey Carswell, Monroe, 135; Audrey Briels, Snohomish, 145; Vida Cienega, Everett, 190.
8th place: Lucy Dalseg, Everett, 120; Liliana Frank, Edmonds-Woodway, 125; Caitlyn Gallagher, Edmonds-Woodway, 145; Lanaya Harris, Marysville Getchell, 190.
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