1 ... 2 ... 3 ... down for the pin! The Cochrane Cowboys Wrestling Club held its Invitational tournament on March 2 at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre.
The tournament took over the gymnasium as well as the turf area with six mats, a slew of volunteers and more than 300 athletes ranging from ages five to 18. The Cowboys had 38 athletes competing in their home tournament, winning a combined total of 30 medals over the five divisions.
"I think as you do more of these, everyone gets better. The reality is, we've got a fantastic group of people here that support our sport in our community from the sponsors and parents to volunteers. This was the most seamless tournament we've ever had with 21 teams and 300 athletes and it just went fantastic," said Cowboys head coach Vern McNeice.
"I'm extremely proud of our group, our sport and our community to be able to put an event like this on. It brings a lot into the town - hotels and restaurants and the community give back with the sponsors ... it's just a win-win deal. A good thing for amateur sport, it's a great model and I'm proud to be part of it ... our group rocked."
While this year wasn't the largest tournament the Cowboys have hosted, McNeice said they have hosted 700 wrestlers in the past, he added that when you have 300 athletes in three or four times, that equates to more than 1,000 matches.
"It takes a lot of coordination and a lot of kudos to Amy Swedlo who was our draw master and she's been working on learning that skill for several years and she's at the point now where she could run any tournament across Canada. She did a great job and I was very happy and proud for her," McNeice said
In the novice division, Chase Adam was the headliner as he won a gold medal while also taking home the Outstanding Elementary Wrestler Award for the tournament. Following up Adam was Owen Cox, Massimo Piatelli and Kate Sharkey who all won gold while Beckham Carr and Ryuji Mackay took home silver and Hugo Kohucik and Jack Edwards took away bronze. In the kid division, Morgan Hill won gold with Tsuyoshi Mackay, Cash Friend, Mila Kirk and Austyn LaBelle taking silver. Nolan Maguire and Kayel LaBelle won bronze.
In the older divisions, the star of the show was Conner Pointen. Not only did Pointen win gold, he also took him the Outstanding U-19 Wrestler Award. McNeice had high praise for Pointen as well as Chase Adam.
"Chase is a young fella who has been wrestling for quite a few years now. He's very dedicated as are his parents ... he's at the top of his age group right now and that's fantastic. He's on the path to be where Connor Pointen is today," McNeice said.
"For Connor, this is a culmination of eight or nine years of dedication and we're really excited about him. We're hoping Connor can go to Nationals and do some damage ... we think he can win that tournament because he trains with us and goes into the University of Calgary every day to train there as well. He deserves everything that he gets because he's a great kid and his family has stepped up, volunteered and helped our program from day one."
McNeice said there were also a couple stand out performances on top of Pointen and Adam.
"A girl that really should be mentioned as she's going through a year that's really unparalleled is Jaityn LaBelle. She's won every tournament that she's been in and has not lost a single match. She's kind of an unsung hero with our group and is just quietly going about her business to get better and better and better. I'm super proud of her and she's got good things ahead of her," McNeice said.
"Another one is Keath Dostaler. We've got a group of kids who are pushing each other and on any given day, one of them shines. We've got Nicholas Hooper, Eli Fines, Brendan Maguire and Keath are all pushing each other every day and on any given day one of them is winning. This weekend I thought Keath had the best tournament I've ever seen him wrestle at ... he was focused, he applied technique he's been working hard on and if he keeps doing that along with the other boys, they're going to push each other to National medals."
Following up Pointen's performance with quality wrestling of their own was Jaityn and Danyka LaBelle, Catherine Swedlo, Nicholas Hooper, Draeden Berry, Keath Dostaler and Annika Fines all took home the tournament's top prize winning gold. Their teammates Noah Sharkey, Wyatt Kirk, Brendan Maguire, Eli Fines, Clara Washburn and Autumn Shopa brought home silver with Zoe Adam rounding out the group with a bronze.
Next up for the Cowboys is the Alberta Open in two weeks down in Medicine Hat, the largest Alberta tournament each year, and the final tourney for the team's younger wrestlers. The team will also have a few participants in the U17+ Nationals is held in Fredericton NB first weekend in April, and qualifying begins for the 2003-2006 wrestlers for Team Alberta for the Western Summer Games in August.
