Last weekend’s Armada Wrestling Invitational was a tremendous success despite a snowy weather delay, said tournament co-chair Tom McEvay.
The tournament took place in the Alberni District Secondary School gyms on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 3-4 and saw more than 500 wrestlers from 78 different high schools.
McEvay said Friday’s snow caused travel delays for some of the teams traveling from the Lower Mainland which resulted in day one wrapping up around 9:30 p.m.—an hour and a half longer than anticipated.
Regardless of the snow outside, the competition inside was “top notch.”
“Prior to our provincial championships, this is the top tournament in B.C. and we saw some tremendous action. Locally our kids were outstanding, we were competitive in every division,” McEvay said.
McEvay gave props to Grade 11 Armada wrestler Aaron Badovinac (74kg) for not having a single point scored on him throughout the tournament.
“Owen Spencer of course took most outstanding cadet boy overall; he was not only champion but most outstanding,” McEvay said.
McEvay also gave a nod to Armada’s Grade 11 Isaac McDonald who he said has been tremendous all year, Grade 8 Paige Maher and Grade 12 Morgan Dagenais who won gold in the girls’ juvenile division.
“So many of the kids rose to the challenge of being in front of their home crowd. For these kids to have it at home it’s great,” McEvay said.
In addition to the wrestling, McEvay said the many volunteers and organizers helped make the tournament a big success.
The BC High School Wrestling Championships will be held from March 2-4 in Salmon Arm.
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