Heading to the 3A Larkin Wrestling sectionals on Feb. 10 was a bittersweet moment for Steven Yee. While he was excited that he was able to advance from regionals, he was also the only one of his eight teammates to advance.

Despite his best efforts, Yee, Div. 978, did not secure a spot for state, losing to his opponents from Maine East and Wheaton.

Heavyweights Santiago Matias, Div. 965, and Francisco Downey, Div. 172, both ranked 4th at the Leyden regionals and served as alternates at sectionals.  

The team had a more complete lineup at regionals with eight wrestlers out of a possible 14 compared to five for city.

Co-captain Charlie Rivera, Div. 851, Adin Frost, Div. 150, Co-captain Joaquin Montero, Div. 876, Thomas West, Div. 953 and Samy Ahmed Yahia, Div. 082, were also able to represent the team at regionals Feb. 3.

Yee started off with a sudden victory against his York High School opponent; however, he lost against Oak Park and River Forest (OPRF) High School through a technical fall which eliminated his chance of winning first.

He was able to bounce back with a fall against his Proviso West opponent, and he secured his spot in sectionals with a decision against Leyden, taking third place.   

The schools Lane faced in regionals were tough; however that was not enough to let that stop them, according to head coach Matt Yan.

The team faced some of the top schools in the state like OPRF.

“So [Yee] has got to improve himself,” Yan said. “We’re really going to condition him hard here. But, otherwise, we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing.”

Yee felt he could have worked on opening his shots to attack and not letting himself be in a vulnerable position. Yee needs more practice and training from the bottom position if he wants to see a greater chance of him succeeding according to Yan.

“That will be a key to success, if we can get out of bottom [position], we certainly have a chance,” Yan said. “I think we have a chance regardless, but the chances increase significantly when we get out of bottom.”

Despite that, Yee felt his training throughout the season has put him in a much better position for playoffs. He was able to overcome opponents that he wouldn’t have at the beginning of the season.

He has also taken on a more direct and aggressive tactic in his matches.

“I would just kind of wait and hope but now, I always feel like I have an opening, I always feel like I can score points and I always take the chance,” Yee said.

Montero, Div. 876, reflected on Yee’s improvement from training with him during off-season.

 “I lifted with him, I wrestled with him during the summer and I feel like I would see improvements with myself when I saw improvements in him,” Montero said. “We’re always fighting, we’re always arguing, we’re always pushing each other to do better.”

Yee was the only wrestler to place at city, taking first place. He improved from third place last season. Despite Yee’s achievement, Yan felt like some of the other wrestlers didn’t take his advice of wrestling the entire time and not letting the opponent have any breaks seriously.

For those wrestlers, he encouraged them to find the motivation within themselves to wrestle hard and wrestle thoroughly.

“I think Steven Yee took our advice to heart,” Yan said. “He picked up a lot of what we’re preaching [about] in practice and that worked out for him today.”

Yee was resilient in his city performance. “He did not allow his opponent to take breaks during the [city] match, he was always on them, and as we saw, that paid off for him in the tournament where he went 3-0 today and 2-0 yesterday [at qualifiers] and he pinned everyone,” Yan said.

Yee believes it all comes from holding a positive mindset because at the end of the day, your opponent is a high school student just like you. Yan attributes his faith in himself for his success.

“It’s a mentality that you have to have, where you know that you can attack and you can prevail,” Yee said “And if you don’t believe that you can prevail, then you wouldn’t have it. You can psych yourself out before a match, you can definitely tell yourself before a match ‘I’m not going to win this’ and it’ll happen that way because you told yourself that you didn’t win it.”

Both Montero and Rivera sees Yee’s steadfast attitude as a component of his success and growth as a wrestler, even when he was a freshman and wanted to challenge the older guys on the team.

“He always wanted to challenge the older guys, he always wanted to be not just as good but better than them,” Rivera said. “He also just has a stubborn mindset — once he sets his goal to something, he’ll do whatever it takes to get there.”

Their season has been long — the team ended 8-10 with a conference record of 5-1, according to Maxpreps — but Yan still worked to uplift their spirits.

“I’m trying to get in their heads, trying to encourage them and keep them optimistic because the season is long and it can wear on you,” Yan said. “So in some cases, that worked and some of our guys are getting frustrated, but I like that. It tells me that they’re invested in what they are doing.”

Being the new coach, Yan has the opportunity of reinstating a new mindset and outlook on wrestling for the team. He makes a big emphasis on gearing wrestlers away from unhealthy weight loss and more on learning the techniques and training to become the best athletes they can be.

As for Yee, next season he’s looking to make it farther than he already has and possibly head to state. The captains believe that having Yee as a strong leader, and having a solid group of underclassmen that won second place in their Frosh city championship, will make for a more successful team and family.