Multi-sport athlete finds success on the mat too
Haeden Moher had never competed on a wrestling mat prior to Wednesday but he won three out of four matches.
The Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School athlete won a silver medal at the 17th Kenner Invitational Wrestling Meet at Kenner Collegiate. There were 210 wrestlers from 17 schools competing.
Only two Peterborough schools sent teams including Kenner with 12 athletes and TASSS with 10.
Moher, a Grade 11 student, said his Griffins football and rugby teammates Kyle Milburn and Cam Wilson talked him into trying it.
“I thought it would help me get in shape for rugby and hockey,” said Moher, who wrestles at 130 kilograms. “I’m pretty athletic and can move pretty quickly for my size.”
While he would have preferred to win gold, Moher felt a silver medal was pretty good for his first competition.
“I definitely gained some confidence that I can compete and not just do it for exercise. At first, I went into it thinking I’d just do it for something to do. Now I want to compete.”
It’s certainly different than what he’s used to.
“It’s kind of weird playing an individual sport for once because I’ve always been a part of a team.”
His teammate Connor Ferguson also won a silver in the 67.5kg weight class and Milburn took bronze at 83kg.
The Kenner Rams have a bit more experience on their team with Ben Craine, who won gold in the 51-kg division, and Dan McLean, who took bronze at 61kg, both competed at OFSAA last year.
“I’m looking to go to OFSAA again,” said Craine, a Grade 11 student, who placed Top 10 at OFSAA last year.
“I’d like to do even better this year. I’ve been gaining a lot more strength. I had a fitness class at the end of last year and started to gain more strength. I think I have a lot of technique, I need to put strength into it. I worked out a lot in the summer and watched videos of myself in past years to improve.”
McLean, a Grade 10 student, moved up in weight this year and says he knows he’ll face tougher competition. He won gold last year at the Kenner event but lost his opening bout to an opponent from Cobourg’s St. Mary. He came back with two wins to take bronze.
“I knew the first person I was going to face was a tougher opponent. It’s his fifth year wrestling and he’s a really good wrestler,” McLean said. “I wasn’t too confident going into it. If I could have been more confident, it might have helped me out a bit.”
It just means he’ll have to work harder, he said.
“I’ll have to learn new things in practice so I can try them out in tournaments and maybe use them instead of things that didn’t work so well,” McLean said.
Other medallists for Kenner included Nick Drysdale winning gold in the cadet level beating teammate Riley Bosley in the final. Tristan Joss won a silver medal at 64kg. Levi Condon took bronze at 47.5kg.