Nickel wins national wrestling title
2018 will be a year to remember for Aleah Nickel. In the last month and a half the Swift Current native has won her first high school provincial title, a Saskatchewan Amateur Wrestling Association provincial championship, and most recently a national title and a Cadet Championship.
“I was super ecstatic,” said Nickel of winning Nationals in Edmonton on Saturday. “It felt amazing.”
“Well it is a pretty special occasion when that happens,” said her coach Curtis Biem, who noted that she was his first national champion in 18 years of coaching. “It is a big deal.”
And, the best is yet to come as her Cadet championship clinched a spot on Team Canada for the Pan Am Championships in Guatemala City, Guatemala in May and the World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia in July.
Saturday, the decorated wrestler won three straight matches to claim gold in the women’s 61 kilogram division. The Swift Current native won her opening match by fall after only 2:21 over Brooke Sacobie from Black Bears Wrestling Club. Nickel added a 15-2 victory by tech fall over the Junior Dinos’ Katherine Cullerton-koval in the semi-final.
Nickel, representing the Swift Current Titans Wrestling Club, clinched the national title with an 8-3 decision over the Pacific Rim Wrestling Club’s Jade Trolland in the gold medal match.
“I kind of started off the match a little bit slow and tried to feel out what she was like. I wrestled her last year in my bronze medal match in Cadets, so I knew she was coming back hard and I just wanted to see how she improved and wanted to be ready for anything and went from there. I quickly figured out what I was able to do and just worked on that.”
Biem said that Nickel was considered a favorite heading into the event, which may have added some pressure.
“She wasn’t quite wrestling the way she normally does. I kind of talk about her being a predator out there usually, but this time she was a little bit more I guess careful and very much thinking things through and wrestling out of safe positions. It was pretty impressive for her to come out with that victory.”
Nickel’s work was far from done though as she took part in the Cadet team trials on Sunday. She rematched with Trolland and won a 3-0 decision. She met the Vipers Wrestling Club’s Savana Pinsent in the semi-final and won 10-4.
Nickel took on Ontario’s Kiera Kuebeck in the championship match and won a 2-1 decision.
“It’s been a long weekend. We came up Thursday. I watched the boys on Friday and was wrestling yesterday. I was super tired and was going into that match and I was not as prepared as I should have been. I went in and went through what I knew. I just made it my match, made sure she didn’t have control positions on me and I just outwrestled her in more of the mind game aspect of it, making sure I controlled the entire match.”
Nickel, 16, is now in her 10th year of wrestling. She has previously represented Canada at the Pan American Championships in Peru and in an international trip to Japan.
“Lots of training, going to a bunch of camps, going and seeing different coaches and getting different views on technique and working out, just doing anything you can. Whenever the U of S has a training camp I would try my best to go,” she said when asked about what led to her incredible season.
“She’s always had talent. She’s just a really good athlete in general, but she started with some success and she stuck with it. She works really hard. She’s been working hard for 10 years at this. It is kind of the culmination of these things. She has made a lot of extra commitment to this sport,” said Biem.
“Even coaching helps out. When I coach the little kids I see different sides. When you actually have to explain a move to a little kid then you understand that you also need to be doing that as well,” Nickel added.
Despite her incredible season, Nickel said loftier goals remain.
“Well for starters just to get a scholarship to university and then definitely working my way to the Olympics.” She hopes that another couple international competitions will get her closer to that Olympic goal. “Yeah it’s totally different competition and it’s a totally different atmosphere that you need to be prepared for.”