The Salmon Arm wrestling team brought home three medals from the Western Canada Age Class Wrestling competition held at Richmond Olympic Oval on January 21-22, which included young wrestlers from the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and BC.
The team, which is comprised of students from Shuswap Middle, Jackson, and Sullivan, brought home a gold, two silvers, and several top six placings, reported Greg Seed, who along with Gerry Beauregard coaches the wrestlers.
Seed said they took 13 students to the competition with Koda Gunn claiming gold, and Aila Norlin and Matei Dumitrache capturing silvers. Also Keira Jager and Andrei Dumitrache placed in the top six. The Salmon Arm team placed 26th out of 57 in all of Western Canada.
There are 32 students committed to the high school wrestling team with two from SMS, 20 from Jackson, and another 10 from Sullivan. The team is preparing for the Okanagan Zones on February 11, which is the trials for the provincials. The top three placings in the Okanagan qualify for provincials.
Seed notes that in wrestling the classes are determined by weight, not age. “Which means opponents can be in Grade 11 or 12 in that same weight class and have many more years of experience,” he commented. “Having that many more years of experience makes such a difference in skills and muscle development.”
“Much like all sports, you can’t expect to be a top basketball player if you just start playing in Grade 12.” He added building the skills from grade nine through to grade 12 will make you a very good wrestler! “The good news about our team is that we have so many grade 9’s coming up through the ranks and learning a lot!”
