Local wrestlers shine at tournaments

Posted Feb 16, 2012 By EMC News

EMC Sports - Wrestlers from the Arnprior Wrestling Club and Arnprior District High School as well as wrestlers from Walter Zadow Public School travelled to Renfrew for the annual Rumble on Feb 11./

Arnprior club member Cole Nichols of Crown Point in just his second tournament came up against some strong, experienced wrestlers./Cole's wrestling improved with each match and by the last bout he was limiting the points scored against him and was able to score points.

John Dolan, a member of the high school team, lost his first match but won his second with strong two rounds of wrestling giving him a second-place finish.

The Walter Zadow wrestlers have been practicing since the beginning of January to prepare for this tournament./Many of them have never wrestled before and for many of their parents it is the first time seeing Olympic style wrestling.

For the Walter Zadow team, Hannah Frazer was one of three in her weight class./She wrestled hard in her two matches and finished in third place.

Zach Cram had three matches and wrestled well but was unable to win the matches for his first time wrestling./

Reese Taylor won his first match in a weight class with five wrestlers./ He then had three more bouts but was unable to win these tough matches.

Hugh Russel came out strong and won all three of his matches, giving him a first-place finish.

Brian Sheeler is also a member of the wrestling club and his experience showed as he won his matches, two by a pin, giving him a first-place finish.

Coach Kevin Mayhew of Fitzroy was very happy with the way all the Walter Zadow wrestlers worked hard and showed great sportsmanship./

CADET OPEN

The weekend of Feb 3-4 was the Ontario Juvenile/Cadet Open in St. Catharine's.

Darren Mayhew of the Fitzroy Harbour area competed in the open as a second-year Cadet./ The tournament had over 500 wrestlers from all across Ontario competing in the two age groups./

There were 23 wrestlers in Darren's weight class. He lost his first match to a wrestler from London, and then won his next two matches easily.

At this point, Darren needed to win two more matches to continue to the next day and finish in the top six./This was not to be, as his next match was tough, with Darren winning the first round, losing the second and third rounds just by a couple of points./He did finish in the top 10 in this weight class.

Darren as a club member is now training for his participation in the Ontario Winter Games in Barrie on March 8-10. But before that competition he and his fellow high school wrestlers were to compet in Kingston on Feb 15 at EOSSAA (Eastern Ontario Secondary School Athletic Association).

The top two wrestlers in each weight class then travel to Peterborough on March 5-7 for OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) to compete against other Ontario High School students. This competition has close to 1,000 wrestlers participating.