One final shot.

That’s what Hoquiam senior Olivier Bryson had left to achieve his goal of winning a state-wrestling championship, a goal that had eluded him throughout his prep career.

And after missing a berth in the state tournament as a junior one season ago, Bryson wasn’t going to let destiny slip by.

The Grizzlies standout put in extra work which paid off with a 1A class 190-pound title at the Mat Classic XXXVI on Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.

After an exemplary senior campaign where he sported a 34-1 record and was taken to the mat just twice this season, Bryson was searching for his first state title in his third and final trip to the season’s final meet.

“He was just in a super-deep region and ended up as an alternate last year,” Hoquiam head coach T.J. Helland said. “It was crushing. The fact that you have a kid that’s 35-2 and you know he’s one of the best competitors in the state, we just ran into some extremely difficult matchups and came up short on them. You can either look at it from the standpoint of, ‘What the heck was it all for?’ or you could do what he did, which was, ‘Well, I’m just going to get better and make sure that never happens again.’”

So Bryson upped his training game in the offseason, attending extra practice sessions, tournaments and camps featuring top-flight competitors.

Bryson trained with the now-defunct Grays Harbor College men’s wrestling team under former Chokers head coach Kevin Pine, qualified for the Junior Nationals, competed in gyms in Aberdeen and Centralia, practiced with former state champions in Bremerton and joined some of his Grizzlies teammates at a summer wrestling camp hosted by former Olympian and NCAA champion Ben Askren in Wisconsin.

Bryson basically lived and breathed wrestling.

“I think it helped motivate me more. (Missing last year) crushed me in the moment. For a couple of weeks after that it was like, ‘What am I doing wrong here?’ I told myself, ‘Wrestle as much as you can and don’t let it happen again.’ And I never stopped wrestling,” Bryson said. “Every opportunity I saw, I went. If there was a tournament in Centralia that weekend, I’m going. If there was a practice in Bremerton, I’m going. It was just every opportunity I saw, I went and took it.”

JIM THRALL | MATFOCUS.COM Hoquiam’s Oliver Bryson raises his arms after winning the 1A class 190-pound state championship at the Mat Classic XXXVI on Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.

While he had been attending additional chances to wrestle consistently starting in his sophomore year, last season’s disappointment led to Bryson leveling up his dedication.

“After last year, it just reinforced it more. I just looked for more opportunities and more tournament and practices to get to,” Bryson said. “It made the process more enjoyable. It just gave me an extra desire to go do it.”

“He just put all of his eggs in one basket, and that basket was wrestling,” Helland said. “He wanted to be this. This is what he wanted to have happen, so he manifested it by seeking out as much information as he could.”

The work paid off as Bryson entered the state tournament with just one loss and was expected to be the favorite and No. 1 seed in his bracket.

But whether it was a simple oversight or outright blindness by the seeding committee, Bryson was named the tournament’s No. 4 seed in the 1A 190-pound competition.

No matter to the Hoquiam coaching staff, who knew Bryson was the one with the target on his back at the state meet.

“I couldn’t keep track of how many times I told him, ‘You don’t have to go out there and strategize for everybody else because you’re the guy everybody is strategizing for,” Helland said. “‘You’re the one that everybody else if worried about. You’re the one they have to try to figure out and do something about.’”

“I found out I was the fourth seed and I was like, ‘OK, I just have to win still.’” Bryson said. “Even if I’m the fourth seed, I still have to beat all my competition and make it there.”

So the plan for Bryson was business as usual, continue to do what got you here because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

“We just let him really focus on continuing to practice as normal. We wanted him, and all of our wrestlers, to kind of stay in that routine. If the routine has been successful to that point, why change it up?” Helland said. “We focused on strengths and not to get too wrapped up on doing this against this kid and that against that kid.”

Bryson got to work with a win over Cascade’s Daniel Guerrero (1:46) followed by a quarterfinal victory over Mount Baker’s Dylan Moa (3:58) and Cashmere’s Grey Jacobson in the semifinals (1:48), all via pinfall.

“Before my semifinals match was when I was most nervous because that match was the last one to really decide if I made it to finals,” Bryson said. “I just kept telling myself, ‘I’ve been working super hard for this and I can beat this kid.’ Once the whistle blew, I was going all in and I knew I was going to win, all my nerves went away.”

In the final, Bryson faced Kalama’s Zach Foreman, a state 2B semifinalist a season ago whom Bryson had wrestled and pinned earlier this season.

History had a way of repeating itself as in their first meeting, Bryson used a cradle to gain an advantage and earn a pinfall win.

Their rematch in the state-championship final had a similar result.

From the bottom in the referee’s position, Bryson worked a reversal and had Foreman’s leg in his grasp, leading to Foreman taking a risk that Bryson took advantage of.

“I think he was trying to grab my leg to get me off-balance, but I got my leg out of the way and I scooped his head up when he was turning into me, and that gave me the perfect opportunity to get the cradle on him,” Bryson said. “Going into the match, I had pinned him with a cradle before. I don’t know why he would just get his head right by his leg, which is perfect for me to get that opportunity. So I scooped it up, clamped down super hard so he couldn’t get away and I just put him on his back.”

The referee’s hand smacked the ground as he blew his whistle, signifying the fall victory and state championship for Bryson, the first for a Grizzlies wrestler since 2006.

JIM THRALL | MATFOCUS.COM Hoquiam’s Oliver Bryson stands atop the podium after winning the 1A class 190-pound state championship at the Mat Classic XXXVI on Saturday in Tacoma.

“(The state title) gave me this massive sense of accomplishment, like how hard work pays off and it taught me you’ll have setbacks, you just have to overcome those and come back stronger,” he said. “It just made me feel like I finally got my dream come true.”

After the win, Bryson rose to his feet and searched for his parents in the crowd.

“I was thinking, ‘Dang, this is what I’ve been working for for the past few years.’ It was kind of surreal and I pointed to my parents in the crowd and gave the No. 1 sign at them,” said Bryson, who found his parents, Chris and Heidi Bryson, by a particular article of clothing his father wears to his matches. “I just saw my dad’s bright orange sweatshirt he always wears. When I ran up there to go talk to them, dad said my mom had cried from happiness and my dad gave me a big hug.”

According to Helland, a big key to Bryson’s state-title run was his sound fundamentals in multiple facets of the sport as well as implementing what he has learned from all the time on the mat.

“He took a lot of (the instruction) to heart and that’s where we started developing his style. Controlling the feet, eliminating danger, eliminating attacks and making it where he could attack you and if you start to get a little extended, he’s going to snap you and put you on your face,” he said. “And he was using that snap-down exceptionally well throughout the tournament.”

Helland added Bryson’s state championship is “positive confirmation” the Grizzlies program is headed in the right direction.

“This was the first time I’ve been driving home from state on Saturday night and I had a smile on my face,” he said. “I felt like we did what we wanted.”

Bryson, who saw the realization of his dream after 10 years in the sport, was quick to thank those that have been there to help and support him.

“I’d like to thank all my coaches for always being there for me. They supported me no matter what. If I did bad or good, they didn’t care. They were helping me get better and they never stopped supporting me. They were the best coaches I could ask for,” he said. “I’d like to also thank my parents because they were always there for me and came to my tournaments, they drove me, I couldn’t have done it without their support. They were always there for me and never gave up on me. They’ve always supported whatever dream I had and helped me get there.”