HISTORIC FIRST AT 2015 OFSAA CHAMPIONSHIPS!

On a bright and sunny day in September, the wrestling team began preseason workouts.  The invitation was for both returning wrestlers and for anyone who desired to get in shape.  Twice a week, these athletes strived for conditioning of their bodies, and to get into some semblance of physical fitness.  They ran, they did CrossFit workouts, they pushed themselves to get stronger, both physically and mentally.

At the end of the 2013-2014 season, the Cavaliers wrestling team graduated 12 wrestlers, leaving a solid core group of 8 to start a rebuilding process.  The fear, as always, is that the attritions would not be made up by the incoming student-athletes.  That fear quickly disappeared as over 20 new students came out for the first practice in October to give the sport of wrestling a try.  Led by the returning senior leaders of Philipp Summer, Thomas Hamilton, Louise Thomson, Maddy Delle Donne, and Kaila Sloat, the team started to rebuild its foundations from the ground up.   Work ethic and practice standards were established, and the team started to immediately understand why wrestling is such a special sport.  Each day included sweating, fatigue, even vomiting, for the sole purpose of preparing the body for the physical exertion that the sport demands.  With an original 28 on the roster, the realities and the struggles of the sport forced six to find another way to get involved in school life. 

 

Those 22 that remained pushed on to experience the grueling tournament schedule, which started at Mentor College on November 12, 2014.  With a new onslaught of wrestlers, the team was thrown headfirst into competition, and held their own on a very tough first experience.  One-third of the team placed in the top three of their designated weight categories.  Kaila Sloat (1st), Noah Stevenson (2nd), Philipp Summer (2nd), Maddy Delle Donne (3rd), Bowen Yang (3rd), and Braden Buckley (3rd) all had tremendous success.  Another success lies in the first competition win for Brendan Holk.

 

On November 21, 2014, the wrestlers headed to Brampton to compete in the Heart Lake Hurricane Hammer wrestling tournament.  This tournament proved to be a challenging one for each of the wrestlers, with Kiko Oyewumi and Braden Buckley placing in the Top 3 of their brackets, and with Kaila Sloat winning her second gold medal of the season.  What it also did, though, was give the wrestlers a good taste of the level of competition that they will be seeing throughout the rest of the season.

 

Turner Fenton’s Howard Gairy Memorial tournament is always a high level competition, with close to 700 wrestlers fighting on nine mats in two gyms.  This year’s competition was no exception.  After only bringing twelve grapplers, Cavaliers wrestlers came away with three medals.  Kaila Sloat continued her undefeated streak, winning all three of her matches by pin, winning her third gold of the season, and holding an impressive 9-0 record.  Braden Buckley came in second, and Louise Thomson came in third.

 

The tough schedule continued to cause the new wrestlers to struggle the following week at the Bishop Ryan Open in Hamilton December 12.  This annual competition hosts wrestlers from across the country, and is an extremely high level of wrestling.  In the first hour, it was apparent that the newer wrestlers were going to struggle.  What wasn’t apparent was how much struggling would take place.  Six wrestlers were eliminated from the tournament in their first two matches.  Diego Brou was seriously injured in his second match and was taken to the hospital to repair and cast a broken arm.  The experienced wrestlers, although sick and battered, held their own throughout the day.  Philipp Summer fought through bronchitis and a tough bracket to place third.  Kaila Sloat suffered her first loss of the season to last year’s OFSAA gold medalist, but fought back to place third.

 

The last tournament of the season before Christmas break found the wrestlers are CKSS on December 17.  Injuries and colds continued to decimate the team, leaving a core group of eight wrestlers to actually compete.  While numbers were low, success for the senior wrestlers continued to stay high.  Philipp Summer fought valiantly to earn a second place finish.  Maddy Delle Donne fought hard to come in third.  The highlight of the tournament, though, was Kaila Sloat decimating the competition again to win gold and bring her overall record to an astounding 13-1.

 

Wrestling will resume in the new year with practices during the week before exams, and the second half of the season picks up upon our return from mid-semester turnaround week at the end of January.