Three Westlock wrestlers brought home a total of four medals after a successful performance at the Highwood Classic in High River over the weekend.
Team members Haley Heffel and Samantha Grove were the Top 2 in the junior category, taking home gold and silver respectively.
“Unfortunately, because it’s a smaller tournament, they had to combine a couple of weight classes, so the two of them ended up in the same weight class,” said coach Jessie Norton. “One of them had to get gold, one of them had to get silver.”
Heffel also won a silver medal in the senior category, while Austin Chaffee took scored a gold medal.
A pair of wrestlers also suffered injuries at the tournament, including a season-ending broken collarbone for Gloria Kerr and a shoulder strain for Chyna Rempel.
“Gloria Kerr wrestled until her second last match and she was doing very well and hopefully would have been going for a bronze medal, but unfortunately got injured,” she said.
The extent of the injury wasn’t known until later Saturday night when X-rays were taken.
“She is one of the toughest wrestlers ever; unless she’s got a broken bone, which obviously she does, she does not complain,” Norton said. “It’s really unfortunate and we feel awful, but as she said, it’s wrestling and stuff happens.”
Heading into the competition, Norton said the team had a good chance of returning with hardware, adding the smaller team size allows for more one-on-one time for each wrestler to improve their technique.
“We’re confident our wrestlers are where they should be,” she said. “But we always tell our kids no matter who you’re going against, everyone is beatable, even yourself.”
The next tournament the team will attend is the Alberta Open Provincials in Ponoka on March 17. This tournament is the national qualifier and Norton said she expects both Heffel and Chaffee to progress.
Wrestlers attending nationals, which are held in Fredericton, NB in April, are expected to pay their own way. In an effort to keep costs down, these wrestlers will join the Edmonton team where they will be instructed by an Edmonton coach.
“They go and they train with the coach that’s going to take them and they get to know how they coach,” she said.
“It is a long period of time that they have trained with us so it is different. But if they want this, it’s very good for them to learn from someone else as well.”
