With the kind of success they had put together all season, it stood to reason that members of the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Wrestling Club were in a position to put together some impressive results at the Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association provincial championship during the Mar. 18 weekend.
As it turns out, that’s exactly what happened.
Moose Jaw competitors picked up six medals at the tournament in Regina, putting together one of the top overall showings for local wrestlers in recent provincial outings.
Leading the way was Peacock’s Kingston Usher in the male 73 kg division, as he’d go unbeaten through his four matches to win gold.
Usher did it in style, too, with only one of his matches ending by anything other than pinfall, that a 10-0 technical fall in his opening bout with Saskatoon’s Shasi Nasr. Usher needed only 50 seconds to win his next match and advance to the medal round, pinning Regina’s James Tshileo, and his semifinal was much the same, a pin in 1:24 against Unity’s Jamal Starchief.
That sent Usher to the gold medal match, and he’d find himself in a battle in a rematch with Tshileo before taking the pin at the 5:12 mark.
Central’s Evelyn Eros had her back against the wall after a second-round loss dropped her to the 73 kg female repechage, but she’d reel off four straight victories of her own to also claim gold.
Eros defeated Saskatoon’s Ava Lindsay by pin in 54 seconds and Saskatoon’s Unique Stone by pin in 2:37 to advance to the medal round, where she’d pin Regina’s Abagael MacDonald in 1:28 to advance to the gold medal match. There, Eros got a measure of revenge with a win over Saskatoon’s Kloey Klymchuk, who had pinned the eventual gold medalist in their first-round meeting. This time around, it was Eros who came out on top, getting the pin in 4:15.
Peacock’s Kayde Kell went unbeaten through to the final before falling to Saskatoon’s Max Kershaw in the male 65 kg male division, while fellow Toilers competitor Kruz Babich rebounded from a second-round loss to reach the 50 kg male gold medal match, where he’d lose by fall to Saskatoon’s Deandre Jabayaby.
Brady Ross also won silver for Peacock, going unbeaten to the final but losing by pin to Saskatoon’s Sam Nickel.
Central’s Akela Sand had the busiest run of local competitors, needing four matches to reach the 64 kg female medal round before falling to Prince Albert’s Denaya Neudorf and rebounding with a pin against Saskatoon’s Isabelle Koskie-Chute in 1:54 to claim bronze.
Vanier’s Wyatt Behiel came a single win away from reaching the medals in the 115 kg male division but ended up settling for sixth place.
You can check out all the results across all divisions at www.trackwrestling.com.
