Edson Gladiators wrestlers compete at nationals

Gladiator wrestlers excel at nationals

For the ninth year, the Edson Gladiators Wrestling Club took wrestlers to the U-17 and U-19 National freestyle and Greco wrestling championships, this year in Edmonton.

Six hundred wrestlers from across Canada competed. Our local wrestlers trained six days a week since the high school program ended in early March, including clinics and practices in Edson, Edmonton and Calgary. It was a grueling training program and our kids worked hard.

We took five wrestlers to the nationals, all in the U-17 age class and they wrestlers extremely well:

Carson Hellekson wrestled in the 65 kg class in two matches in freestyle and four matches in Greco. He lost his two freestyle matches but won one of his matches in Greco and improved on his wrestling from last year’s nationals in Windsor Ont.

Caleb Kemp wrestled in the 71 kg class in two matches in each of freestyle and Greco. He scored lots of points, including 20 in his first match, but was not able to claim a win.

Alyssa Lougheed wrestled in the 53 kg class. In her first year wrestling and her first nationals, she lost her two freestyle matches but won two Greco matches, surprising everyone, and lost a tough match in the bronze medal match, placing fourth - a fantastic result for Alyssa.

Xana Beran wrestled in the 49 kg class in her second nationals. She won her preliminary matches handily and landed in the gold medal match. She came up short against an experienced wrestler from Coast Wrestling Club in Vancouver and had to settle for the silver medal. She wrestled the next day in the Team Canada trials and won two of her five matches, finishing in fifth. Overall, a very strong performance for Xana.

Tiana Bryant wrestled in the 57 kg class, also in her second nationals. She also won her preliminary matches, including a pin against a girl who had beaten Tiana three times earlier in the season. In the gold medal match, Tiana scored points but could not overcome the strong defensive wrestling of her opponent from Team Impact from Toronto and, like Xana had to settle for silver. Tiana won gold in last year’s nationals but in a weight class that was not as deep as this year. In the team Canada trials the next day, Tiana finished fourth in a very strong group of girls.

It is a huge challenge for our wrestlers to take on the best in Canada. We learned a great deal about how hard you have to work, and how smart you have to work, to be able to compete with the best. Our kids are now looking forward to a summer off (except for summer wrestling camp in Jasper). Tiana and Xana have one more tournament this season, in New York (April 21-22), travelling with a Northern Alberta team.