Cochrane athletes are hitting the big stage as a number of local competitors have or will be strutting their stuff on a national stage at the USports level which began Feb. 22 and 23 with wrestling.
Cochrane had three athletes competing in the wrestling event with a fourth in Aidan McKeage out due to injury. It was a successful weekend for the trio of Connor and Callum McNeice as well as Brendan McKeage who all represented the University of Calgary. Connor brought home a silver medal in the 65kg category after losing a 4-2 decision in the final round. His older brother Callum lost a very close 5-4 decision in the 76kg bronze medal match while Brendan McKeage fell 17-7 in the 61kg bronze medal match, finishing fourth.
Connor had to battle through a lot in order to even make it to the event and said he was happy winning a medal, even if it wasn't the colour he was hoping for.
"Getting silver was kind of bittersweet for me. My goal was to win my rookie season so not achieving that was hard to handle for me. Going into the competition about three weeks out, I got sick and was sick for about two weeks before my doctor finally booked me for a chest x-ray," Connor said.
"A week before competition, I was diagnosed with pneumonia and I had lost 15 pounds. So not having ideal training conditions leading up (to USports nationals) was tough. I'm used to being the guy in my weight class that had good conditioning, but this weekend that wasn't there for me so I had to adjust my style of wrestling."
"While not achieving my goal was hard to accept, I'm proud that I fought through and came home knowing I left it all on the mats. Another thing that was upsetting for me was with one second left I was winning 2-1 and got pushed out. Knowing that I was one second away from achieving my goal was definitely a tough thing for me to come to terms with but it taught me a lesson and I plan on learning from it."
While some may use the fact they wrestled through illness and still managed to medal as a confidence boost, Connor doesn't look at it that way. The 19-year-old wrestler said he used it more as an eye-opener moving forward.
"It definitely was an eye opener for me and made me realize that I need to get to work and prepare hard for club nationals in a month. In a month after I've put in all the work, I'm sure I'll be confident and ready to win at club nationals," said Connor.
Connor added it was a bonus having so many former Cochrane Cowboys wrestlers competing at a high level.
"Having my brother, Brendan and Aidan there is super cool. I grew up with all of them and they're all close friends," Connor said. "To have them all at these tournaments with me representing Cochrane is pretty cool. A lot of (Cochrane) Cowboys who are in high school, junior high and even alumni came out to watch us wrestle. The wrestling community in Cochrane is growing every year and it's cool to be a part of that."
Dinos looking for basketball repeat
Wrestling isn't the only sport Cochrane has a representative with national championship aspirations. Jake Nielson was more of a depth player for the Calgary Dinos basketball team that won the national title a year ago, but is playing a larger role for the 24-0 Dinos who will look to punch their ticket back to the final four tournament with a win over the UBC Thunderbirds in the Canada West championship game on March 2. Nielson has played 167 minutes so far this season, scoring 48 points with a .432 shooting percentage. Tip off for the game will go at 1 p.m. at the Jack Simpson Gym in Calgary.
Cochranites looking to add track and field medals
To round out championship season, three Cochrane track and field athletes are looking to reach the podium in the USports nationals after a very successful Canada West championships. Representing the University of Lethbridge was Sophia Nowicki, who claimed the bronze medal in the 3,000m while also finishing fifth in the 1,500m in the Canada West to qualify her for finals. The University of Calgary's Rachel Berscht won silver in the high jump at 1.70 metres while Laura Huck of the University of Regina claimed bronze with her 4x400 team thanks to their time of 3:50.96. The USports track and field nationals are March 7 to 9 in Winnipeg.
