Nickel captures Junior Canadian Wrestling silver medal

Aleah Nickel earned her first junior age national wrestling medal at the 2019 Junior Canadian Wrestling Championships in Saskatoon this past weekend.

Nickel stepped up from the juvenile age group to capture the silver medal in the Junior Women Free Style 59 kilogram weight class.

“It actually went a lot better than I was expecting,” Nickel admitted after her medal performance. “The way my draw was set up, I was able to watch the people I was uncertain about, and then be able to watch it, learn, know what I needed to do to get prepared for my next matches.”

Nickel opened up nationals with a 10-0 technical fall over Angela Aalbers, who is a member of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies wrestling program. In her second round match she scored a pin fall win in 53 seconds over Esmee Hotson from the University of Guelph Gryphons wrestling team.

Her lone loss came in round three when Emma Parker from the University of Saskatchewan Huskies wrestling program handed her a decision loss. Parker was the 2017 U19 National Champion in her weight class.

Nickel concluded the tournament with a pin fall win over Makayla Levy from the Metro Amateur Wrestling Club in Nova Scotia. Levy is a two time national champion and was a silver medalist at the 2017 Canada Games.

She said she was placed with her performance against a strong field of competitors.

“This is an age group above what I normally wrestle at because right now I’m still a juvenile.”

“These were definitely a lot more experienced athletes,” she added “so they have that one extra year with a more technical coach. And that’s what they do now, all they do is train for wrestling. As where I started out with football at the beginning of the season and now I’m going into track after this.”

Nickel is now gearing up for the U19 Canadian Championships in Fredericton, NB on April 5 to 7, where she will be on the mat against fellow juvenile aged competitors.