It’s different down there.
Like, 30 degrees and 90-per-cent humidity different.
And so is the wrestling.
But that didn’t stop a pair of Cochrane Cowboys wrestlers from leaving it all on the mat at the 2014 Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées (FILA) Pan-American cadet wrestling championships May 4 in Recife, Brazil.
Wrestling for Canada in the cadet (14-16 year olds) age group, Brendan McKeage took bronze and Callum McNeice seventh. Their effort helped Canada’s cadet boy’s team win bronze with a 71-point performance at the tournament featuring top amateur wrestlers from North, Central and South America.
McNeice, who wrestled eventual bronze-medallist Daniel Nascimento of Brazil in the 50-kilogram class at Recife, found the grappling difficult in the stifling heat and humidity of the seaside city 2,300 kilometres northeast of Rio de Janeiro. The tournament took place in an open-air stadium with a roof over top.
“It must have been 30 degrees out. I ended up getting my opponent in a gut wrench, a tight one,” McNeice, a 16-year-old St. Timothy School Grade 10 student, related over the phone from Brazil. “One like that in Canada, it’s game over. But in Brazil, since it was so hot, it was so sweaty the hold slipped right off and it just didn’t work out. It’s definitely different.”
McNeice was out-pointed 15-8 by Nascimento in the opening-round match of the single-match knockout tournament.
McKeage out-pointed Brasil Hygor of Brazil 4-3 in the opening round in the 42-kg weight division before losing 15-6 to Cody Phippen of the United States.
“The wrestlers from South America had an entirely different wrestling style than I’m used to,” McKeage, a 14-year-old Grade 10 at Cochrane High, said. “It was a really good experience for me. It was a good experience to learn from and say, ‘Oh, this is what I need to do to wrestle internationally.’ ”
They qualified for Canada’s Pan-Am wrestling team with gold-medal performances at nationals last month in Guelph, Ont., in what is by far the Cowboys’ most successful season to date.
“I don’t know where to start,” Cowboys coach and Callum McNeice’s dad, Vern McNeice, said. “Man, I could tell you 100 stories about our trip so far.
“Team Canada won bronze. That’s a big deal. You have to think of all the kids in Canada who wish they were down here. And then to come down here with all these Pan-American countries and win bronze for Canada, that’s fantastic.”
This international experience will only help Cochrane’s wrestlers as they prepare for the world cadet wrestling championships July 15-20 in Snina, Slovakia.
