Four members of the Olds High School wrestling team placed in the top three positions at the Medicine Hat Hawks' tournament on Jan. 11.
Austin Waldron topped all wrestlers in the 90-kilogram division, while Meagan Wild topped the female 65-kilogram category. Dwayne Neustaeter finished second in the 74-kilogram weight division while Bryce Wachtler finished third in the 90-kilogram division. A total of nine OHS wrestlers attended the tournament.
George Grant, coach of the wrestling team, said he was pleasantly surprised by the effort put forth by team members given that they improved over the holiday break.
ìThe kids are starting to put a lot of the different moves together and coming up with a really good game plan when they're out on the mat. Usually that first tournament after Christmas you see a little bit of a lull and the kids usually take a step back, but I was really impressed with a number of them and how they made huge strides forward. The thinking process and the reaction time to their opponent is a lot quicker and it's definitely a benefit to them,î he said.
Kevin Waldron finished fourth in the 81-kilogram division while Taylor Ormann also finished fourth in the 65-kilogram female division.
Jeremy Zawalykut and William Reiswig wrestled against each other in the 90-kilogram weight division with Zawalykut, a Grade 12 student in his third year on the wrestling team, out-grappling the rookie Grade 10 Reiswig to claim fifth. Seth Quilley also went to the tournament, finishing seventh in the 81-kilogram division.
The team is now taking a bit of a break before resuming action on Feb. 1 when the senior wrestlers will go to the University of Alberta High School tournament and the juniors will compete in the Paperweight tournament. Both competitions are in Edmonton.
Grant said although team members are improving their technique, he will be focusing them on improving their conditioning before the next tournament. He said it's much easier to improve conditioning than technique.
ìWe are floundering a little bit with the conditioning. We run out of steam (during matches) and we're getting caught that way and a couple of our losses were because we just got tuckered out. But that's an easy fix, whereas learning technique is the longer, more tedious task that the athletes have to go through,î he said.
