Three Evergreen State College women's wrestlers have traded the mat for the fire line, deploying as wildland firefighters during Washington's worst fire season since 2021.

Seniors Viktoriya Dovhoruka and Ellabelle Taylor and junior Mariah Paz are working with state firefighting crews as hundreds of thousands of acres burn across the state, the college confirmed in an official release Wednesday, Aug. 12.

Dovhoruka is stationed on the Colville Indian Reservation, where the Kaiser Canyon Fire has burned more than 120,000 acres, according to KUOW. Paz and Taylor are working in the Spokane area, where wildfires destroyed more than 600 structures and forced 60,000 residents to evacuate.

"Wrestling is much more than a sport — it is a tool for building character, resilience, and leadership," head women's wrestling coach Fan Zhang said in the release. "The three student-athletes on our team who are firefighters demonstrate exactly what wrestling teaches: the ability to stay calm under pressure, make tough decisions, and never quit when others are depending on you."

Zhang said the program emphasizes developing the whole person alongside athletic excellence, and that seeing the three wrestlers serve as firefighters reflects what happens when a college invests in building strong community members.

The 2026 fire season has scorched more than 720,000 acres statewide, the third-worst total in 20 years behind only 2015 and 2020, the Seattle Times reported. Three individual fires have each exceeded 100,000 acres.

All three Geoducks remained deployed as of the college's Aug. 12 release. The fire season typically runs through early October, and no return-to-campus date has been announced.