Tatum Heikkila took fifth at USMC National Championships on July 19, in Fargo, North Dakota, which isn’t bad for someone who picked up the sport on a whim just two years ago.

Heikkila, who will be entering her junior year at Aberdeen High School in the fall, didn’t get started on the mat until she was encouraged to join the team by wrestling coach Craig Yakovich.

Yakovich caught Heikkila just in time as she was about to sign up for another sport with much less physical contact.

“I wasn’t going to do wrestling, I was going to do bowling,” Heikkila said. “Then my high school coach Craig stopped me at the door and convinced me to do it.”

Though she didn’t initially intend to do so, Tatum Heikkila was following in the footsteps of her older sister, Karli Heikkila. Karli was a three-year varsity wrestler for the Bobcats before graduating in 2018.

Before she had intentions of joining Aberdeen’s newly-formed bowling team and before she was steered toward wrestling, her father, Saul Heikkila, envisioned his daughter as a basketball player.

“She was taller than everybody. Her aunt was a really good basketball player and I thought, ‘Boy, Tatum is going to be a good basketball player.’ Then she got to that point where she kind of just stopped growing,” he said. “If I had to guess, I would have said volleyball and basketball would have been her best sports, but she fooled us all.”

Since putting her hoop dreams aside, Tatum has made herself a force to be reckoned with in her weight class.

She took the silver medal last high school season in the 190-pound weight class in February before coming in fifth in the 200-pound division at the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Mat Classic XXXI state meet on Saturday, Feb. 16.

Tatum, who said she wants to go for gold at state to conclue this coming junior season, said facing the elevated competition at nationals pushed her skills to their limit.

“It’s way more difficult. Each person is going against a state finalist. They’re all top-level athletes, which is really good because you get the experience, but they’re all at a really high level,” she said. “They train all year so the competition is really hard.”

To prepare for the high level of competition Tatum has started dedicating more of her time to the sport.

She now trains nearly year round as the end of the high school wrestling season leads into the beginning of her preparation for nationals.

While she is spending more time in the weight room and extra hours on the mat to refine her technique, Tatum likes to relax before a match.

She said she counts on her coaches and a carefully selected pre-match music playlist to mentally prepare.

“A lot of how I performed came from my coaches. We have a really tight-knit wrestling group. We always pray even though I’m not religious and all … That helps a lot,” she said.

“Right before the match, I’ll go and be in my own little corner and I’ll warm up by myself and listen to music and zone out to stay focused.”

With a little over a month until the start of the swim season, Tatum’s focus will switch from the mat to the pool. When the swimming season ends she’ll be turning her attention back to the sport she hopes to compete in on the collegiate level.

Saul has watched his daughter come along since she first showed up to wrestling practice two years ago and is looking forward to backing her as she develops as a grapple.

“We’re excited for what the future holds and if she continues along this path, we’ll be there to support it,” he said.