Nine Salmon Arm Secondary wrestlers qualified in the Okanagan zone to travel to Duncan last weekend to attend the B.C. Secondary School Wrestling Championships, where they faced tough matches.
Boys competing were Colin Robinson, Ken Kosowick, Derek Shogren, Braden Chamberlain, Micah Gunn, Cody Gulka and Jacob Ashton. The boys all competed hard but did not get much luck in the draw. For example, first-year wrestler, Derek Shogren, in his first match, drew the current national champion. The other boys faced stacked weight classes as well, but competed hard and came away with victories to be proud of, says co-coach Ray Munsie.
In the girls competition, our two athletes shone, says Munsie.
Jenna Cote, a Grade 9 student, won her first match. In her second match, she drew Ashley Osichuk of Campbell River. Osichuk, now a Grade 12 student, was last year’s outstanding female wrestler in B.C. and is currently ranked in the top three in Canada. Cote fought unbelievably hard and took the match to its limit, losing on points. After the match, a gracious Osichuk gave Cote high praise and was surprised to learn that she is only a Grade 9 student.
Shay-Lynn Steiger, a third-year wrestler, was an absolute stand-out, says Munsie.
Steiger won gold two years ago in a light weight class where not many seniors were competing. The girl she defeated in the final that year made it her mission to beat Steiger last year. It came down to the same two girls meeting in the final, with Steiger coming home last year with the silver medal. This year, Steiger sacrificed other activities in order to devote more time to train for wrestling. She was not in the same weight division as her arch rival this year but the road to the championship was anything but easy.
With more girls in her weight than ever before, and those girls coming from some of B.C.’s top programs, Steiger would be pushed to get a medal of any colour.
In her semi-final final, she came from behind and pinned her opponent from Gleneagle school in Coquitlam.
In the final, Steiger faced Alexia Seal from Mission who had knocked off the number-two seed in the tournament to get to the final. A match ends at any time if there is a pin, both shoulders on the mat for one second, regardless of the score.
If there is not a pin, the winner of two out of three rounds wins the match. Steiger lost the first round and then won the second. In the third and deciding round, Steiger was up 5-0. If there is a six-point difference, the match ends in a superior decision. With less than a minute to go, Seal scored two points. The referee stood both wrestlers up for failure to progress on the mat.
If Steiger’s opponent could score a three-point take down, she would win the match because even though the score would be tied, she would win on the tie breaker because she scored last. The stands were full and everyone was on their feet screaming. There were 13 seconds remaining. Steiger knew that her best way to defend against that take down was to attack, and attack she did, right on the whistle. She scored a three-point take down seconds before the buzzer, retaking her provincial championship. The tournament officials voted that match as the outstanding final of the evening.
Steiger will now be travelling to Kamloops twice a week to train with Miranda Dick, a World University Games gold medallist and a several time national champion. She will be preparing for the Canadian National Championships in Saskatoon over the first weekend in April.
If anyone would like to help offset the cost of the trip, contributions to the club would be gratefully received at either SAS campus.
