Salmon Arm and Shuswap wrestlers brought home big wins at the Okanagan regional competition.
The high school wrestling team, composed of athletes from Shuswap Middle School (SMS) and Jackson and Sullivan Salmon Arm Secondary campuses, competed at Kelowna Secondary on Feb. 11 against other Okanagan teams.
Seventeen wrestlers are on the team, two from SMS, nine from Jackson and six from Sullivan.
Jackson claimed the gold medal in the boys’ and girls’ team events. Bronze winners were Noah Vannieuwenhuizen, Cole Wright and Owen Roy, silver medalists were Tayden Lafortune, Ginger Anderson and Carter Schmidt, and gold winners were Keira Jaegar, Isabella Rodriguez and Daniel Laroche.
The Sullivan team placed third in the girls division and six in the boys. Individual gold medalists were Aila Norlin, Andrei Dumitrache, Emma Muddiman and Anthony Bodry, and Seth Cowan nabbed a bronze.
Coaches Greg Seed and Gerry Beauregard expressed pride for the wrestlers and their performances.
“Our wrestlers’ hard work paid off. All of the Jackson and Sullivan wrestlers qualified for the provincials,” said Seed.
Provincials will be held at the Pacific National Exhibition, Feb. 23 to 25, 2023. High school wrestling national championships take place in Vancouver March 23 to 25, 2023.
While all top three placings qualify for provincials, Seed said he isn’t sure how many wrestlers will attend as they compete in weight divisions, not sorted by age, and many of the team’s qualifying wrestlers are only in the ninth grade. Their opponents could have up to three years of wrestling experience on the young athletes.
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