The Under 17/Under 19 Wrestling Canada national championships at the University of Alberta brought podium placings for two of the three participating Chemainus Secondary School students.
Luther Tidder was crowned the national champ in the U17 boys 125-kilogram category, unfortunately without having another competitor to face, while Hannah Tuplin claimed the bronze medal among the U19 53 kg girls.
While it was obviously nice for Tidder to receive a gold medal from the championships, he would have preferred if it came about from actually winning at least one bout.
“I was a little disappointed, upset really,” he confided.
“He got there, weighed in and they found out there was no other heavyweights to wrestle in the Cadet division,” noted Nick Zuback, one of the coaches with the contingent of 10 national competitors from the Cowichan Valley Wrestling Club.
Tidder added an attempt was made to at least get him an exhibition match, but that didn’t materialize either.
“They were all in a different age class than me,” he pointed out.
Tidder is only in Grade 9 and in his first year of wrestling so he expects this is only the beginning of some great opportunities going forward.
“For him, it was a great experience,” said Zuback. “He’s never left the Island.
“Hopefully in the next few years he’ll get to go back (to nationals).”
Tidder said his first plane trip plus all the training and events surrounding wrestling “was a lot of fun.”
Wrestling just suddenly emerged on the scene for him, out of the blue.
“A friend told me about it,” he said. “I was like, ‘I’ll try it.’ At first I said I was going to no tournaments. Look where I ended up now.
“I never had a thought about it. Before I went into wrestling, I wanted to go into gymnastics, actually.”
Tuplin had a tough draw and wound up facing eventual champion Victoria Seal of Coast Wrestling Club in the semifinals for her only loss in five matches.
Zuback pointed out this tournament does not work on seeding, otherwise Tuplin would have likely gone against Seal in the gold medal match rather than the earlier meeting.
Tuplin won over Bayley Beuerlein of Edmonton on a fall at 1:44 and prevailed against Jayden Sparks of Montreal after 5:25 before losing a 16-8 decision to Seal.
“Time ran out and she scored six big points on this girl,” noted Zuback.
Tuplin finished strong with rematch victories over Beuerlein and Sparks on falls at 5:28 and 4:43, respectively.
It may be the end of high school competitions for Tuplin, but she has much more in store in the future.
“I was watching the university coaches,” Zuback said. “I could see them making notes. They all kind of want her. She’s got the natural ability, naturally talented.”
The third Chemainus Secondary wrestler in the competition, Emily Reid, lost her two matches in U19 90 kg in her first nationals.
Reid was beaten by Maren Evanson of Lethbridge at 1:26 and lost to Amanda Silveri of Pacific Rim on a fall at 5:34.
“The second match I was in her corner, I really felt she should have won,” Zuback indicated.
“She’s got next year, too, which is exciting. She’s going to take a lot back and work hard.”
The quick trip to Edmonton was both rewarding and tiring for the competitors.
“It was a long three days, but it was good,” said Zuback. “We enjoyed it, the weather wasn’t great.”
Edmonton just broke a city record with 167 consecutive days with below zero temperatures.
