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Caleb Seaton paced slowly around the outside of the wrestling mat with a look of calmness not seen on the face of somebody who is about to wrestle for a Class 5A regional championship.

With long athletic shorts, a long-sleeved T-shirt and ear buds snaking up from his mp3 player, Seaton looked like any other teenager that you would see at the mall on a Saturday afternoon.

The match before his ended with a wrestler breaking his collarbone, causing a long delay. Despite the delay, Seaton did not change his approach. He casually snapped on his head gear and removed the shorts and shirt revealing his Bonner Braves singlet and fit physique.

Tough loss is lesson learned

Entering the day, the 112-pound sophomore had a record of 31-5 and a second-place finish at the Kaw Valley League Championships the previous Saturday. The second-place finish came in a closely contested overtime loss to Mill Valley’s Trevor Boyer in the championship match. Seaton entered the match ranked No. 2 in the state in his weight class, and Boyer was ranked No. 3.

BSHS coach Dan Burns thinks that loss can be a motivating force as Seaton’s season winds down.

“He gained a lot from this match,” Burns said. “In overtime, the match could have gone either way, but it didn’t go Caleb’s way that day. He is a competitor and doesn’t like to lose, so I think he can still accomplish his ultimate goal.”

Seaton agrees that he was able to take lessons away from the KVL Championships.

“I’ve been doing pretty good this season,” Seaton said. “That loss (to Boyer) can teach me not to give up and to continue to work hard in order to be better.”

Seaton, who says focus and determination are his best attributes, is in his 11th year of organized wrestling and is enjoying one of his better seasons.

“As a freshman, the season is pretty tough to adjust to,” Burns said. “But as a sophomore, he has come in focused and ready to go every time out. He has done very well this year, and he has wrestled tough competition.”

Seaton credits a lot of his success to his father, BSHS assistant coach Jerry Seaton.

“He is the first to congratulate me when I’m coming off the mat,” Caleb Seaton said. “He also really rides my butt when I make a mistake and tells me why I made that mistake. He really pushes me to be better all the time.”

Jerry Seaton, a former Braves wrestler himself, is impressed by his son’s success to this point in his high school career.

“I push him far enough to where I expect him to be better than everybody he gets on the mat with,” he said. “I can get away with pushing my kids further than I could with the rest of the guys on the team, so he really hears it from me. He’s been wrestling since he was 5 and has always been pretty much a natural.”

Seaton also credits his teammate Tanner McCleary with pushing him to be better. McCleary, a heavyweight, is ranked No. 6 in the state and has a similar record (32-5) to Seaton.

“We really push each other,” Seaton said. “It is a personal competition between us. We always compare season records and talk trash a little bit, but in the end, we are each other’s biggest fans.”

Always motivated to improve

As Seaton stepped on the mat against Robert Arzola from Turner, all eyes were locked on the focused Bonner Brave — including Arzola’s. Seaton waited for an opening for the first 20 seconds when he pounced for an early takedown. He led 8-0 by the end of the first period.

Seaton came out a little conservative early in the second period as his dad yelled, “Get tight, get tight.” Apparently that call worked for Caleb as he got Arzola down to the mat and flipped him over his shoulder to pin him for the victory.

Seaton placed fourth at state at 103 pounds last year. He will pursue another state medal on Friday and Saturday at the Class 5A state tournament at the Kansas Coliseum in Wichita.

Seaton (33-5) opens the tournament with a match against Newton freshman Pablo Llamas (16-14). With a victory, he would advance to wrestle either Logan Arnold (17-8) of Hays or Bret Simmons (21-16) of Topeka Seaman.

Seaton said he plans to use the same approach at state as he did during regionals. That, he hopes, will lead to another big finish.

“I just need to take each match one at a time,” Seaton said. “I need to make sure and wrestle (my style) of match, not someone else’s.”

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