Christmas came early this year for several members of the Williams Lake Wrestling Club, who carted home medals and accolades from the Simon Fraser University War on the Floor Tournament.
The event ran for three days this past weekend (Dec. 15-18) and featured hundreds of young grapplers from across western Canada.
“We did exceptionally well,” said Sonia Conrod, president of the Williams Lake Wrestling Club. “We’re really proud of all of them. The competition was fierce this year.”
Day one of the competition featured local wrestler Alexander Eves, who competed in the Grade 6-8 36 kilogram weight class.
“There were 18 kids in his weight class,” Conrod said. “He did incredibly well as he is only in Grade 5 and came home with 15th.”
Also on day one were the Schoolboy (Grade 7-8, 54 kgs) grapplers featuring locals Austin Haller and Braden Conrod.
“This class had 20 competitors and was a double knockout weight class,” she said. “This was Austin’s first big tourney and he did very well coming home with 15th.”
Braden, also in the weight class and with a number of years wrestling experience under his belt, battled his way to a bronze medal.
Hazel Rueger, later in the day, placed fifth in the Schoolgirl (Grade 7-8, 54 kg) division.
On day two of the competition the Cadet (Grade 9-10) and Juvenile (Grade 11-12) divisions squared off.
Makaela Haller finished seventh in the 60 kg Cadet weight class, while fellow WLWC member Kara Pare fought to a bronze medal in the 57 kg Cadet class.
Jeremy Thompson, also competing on the day, went out with an injury from his first match in the 70 kg Juvenile division.
But meanwhile, Kerry Normand wrestled to a silver medal win in the Juvenile 90 kg class.
Braden, who advanced to Cadet after his performance in Schooboy, took on Grade 9-10 grapplers on day two.
“He fought hard against the older kids and took a very respectable eighth out of 20 in the 54 kg class,” Conrod said.
On day three of the competition, called the Elite division, the WLWC was represented.
Pare, who qualified by medalling on day two of the competition, took fourth. Meanwhile Normand, who also medalled on day two, took sixth. Conlan Sprickerhoff, who had a very tough division, Conrod said, took seventh in the 57 kilogram class.
Next up for the WLWC is a trip to the Kelly Road Invitational (Prince George) on Jan. 7. Following that the club heads to Kamloops from Jan. 13-154 for the Western Age Class Tournament featuring grapplers from across western Canada.