The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Burke takes two titles in Australia competition
Former M-E wrestler back from Australia with new hardware
When Zach Burke started his wrestling career, he had to go a fewmiles fromhis hometown to find a place to compete.
Recently, the sport took him much, much farther.
Burke, who graduated from Stockbridge Valley this spring and wrestled at Morrisville-Eaton during high school, won titles in the Down Under Beach and Down Under Individual tournaments in Australia last week.
“I wasn’t really knowing what I was going to do,” he said on Wednesday afternoon. “I just knew that my training was good.”
Burke made a name for him- self at M-E under coach Duane LeBlanc, winning a Section III title as a sophomore and advancing to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships again as a senior when he placed sixth. As a result, hewas invited by Down Under Sports to compete in Australia as New York’s lone representative.
Four different countries were represented in the tournament with 38 wrestlers coming from the United States.
To prepare, Burke ran and lifted weights while also competing with his younger brother Beau in the wrestling room in their garage. He made the trip to Australia with his mother Joann and the travelling made the first day of practice a tough
one. Burke quickly got his legs back under him and credited his conditioning for allowing him to be successful.
“I think my conditioning was better than everybody else’s,” he said. “In the finals I beat a kid and it was close the whole way until the last minute and his conditioning just faded away but mine didn’t.”
Wrestlers competed in freestyle tournaments, which is the style used in the Olympics but differs slightly from folkstyle, which is used in high school. Burke had gained plenty of experience in freestyle over the past two years, competing in tournaments along the East Coast of the United States during the months off from high school wrestling, and said he wasn’t affected by the style.
Burke won the 132-138 title in the beach tournament and captured first at 132 in the individual tournament.
“I was shocked,” he said. “I didn’t think I was going to (win) going down there just because of all the kids that were going, but I did.”
When he wasn’t on the mat, Burke was sightseeing in the new country. He got the chance to see some of the zoos and monuments that Australia has to offer but was happy that wrestling played a key role in the trip.
“It was a lot better than just going to a place and just seeing it,” Burke said. “More kids should go overseas and wrestle. It’s fun.”
His next challenge will come a little closer to home. Burke is enrolled at Niagara County Community College, about 20miles north of Buffalo, and will wrestle for the Thunderwolves, who were nationally ranked and finished second in the Region III/ Northeast District I championships and 10th at the NJCAA National Tournament last year.