Senior Kaleb Olejniczak has a lot going for him as he gets ready for his 4th trip to the state wrestling championship later this week. The quiet, hard working senior is an accomplished honors student, a finalist for the prestigious Dan Gable Wrestling Award, and a University of Northern Iowa wrestling commit. He handles it all with great ease along with competing in football, track and baseball.
“I love all of those sports and starting the year I wasn’t quite sure on what route to go. I ended up settling in on wrestling because I felt the ceiling was the highest for me in that sport. I talked to the UNI coaches during the football season and visited the campus several times and immediately fell in love with it.”
Olejniczak signed his letter of intent prior to the start of the season so he could put all of his focus on being a leader of a young Perry squad and driving to an individual goal of winning a state championship. Olejniczak lost to Brody Teske in a first period fall in last year’s 3A final at 126. Teske is now a member of the top ranked Penn State wrestling team. Olejniczak bumped up to 138 this season and has dominated the competition posting a 43-1 record and earning one of the top seeds at this week’s tournament.
“I think one of the things I really worked on was being more aggressive on my feet and to keep my motor going a little more consistently. I try to keep the same fast tempo going from start to finish and that seems to be working. I really put a focus on hitting both sides of the body from my feet and not being one dimensional.”
Perry head coach Mark Weber certainly agrees with his quiet star.
“Kaleb really didn’t have to change a lot this year because he was successful last year. We just simply fine tuned a few areas, mainly on his feet. We have really developed an effective short arm offense working off the front headlock and other positions. Also his return to the mat form and other techniques. So really, it wasn’t changing any one thing but more of showing him different techniques to offer the higher skilled opponents some different looks.”
Olejniczak recently added another honor to his long list of achievements by becoming Perry’s all time wins leader, passing former teammate and friend Zach Thompson for the distinction. “Yeah, I view that record as a testament to all of the people who have helped me through out the years. Zach was one of those guys. We wrestled a ton when he was on the team and he made me a better wrestler. I’m very grateful to everyone who has helped me.”
Even though he is a state wrestling veteran, don’t expect Olejnizak to push the fast forward button to Saturday night championship clash.
“What I have learned through the years is that to get to the podium is a process. You have the goal of getting to the top of the podium but to do it you have to take one match at a time and not look ahead. That’s when you can get into some trouble.”
Perry will be looking to crown their second state champion in as many years after watching Zach Stewart storm his way to the crown last year.
Raccoon Valley Radio will provide play by play coverage and analysis of all 3 classes and area schools beginning Thursday morning. Shawn Kenney, Doug Rieder, Shannon Cline, Tim O’Brien, Jay Nelson and Nate Gonner will all be on hand to deliver the action.