Carlton and St. Mary win three gold, two silver and two bronze medals at provincial wrestling tournament

Prince Albert high schools picked up seven medals at the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletics Association Provincial Wrestling Tournament in Warman over the weekend.

St. Mary High School sent 18 wrestlers to the competition. Grade 12 students Kalin Langford, Trevor Bannerman and Brianna Merasty won gold, silver and bronze medals in the 115-, 73-, and 105-kilogram weight classes, respectively, while Grade 10 student Cole Sanderson finished first in the 62-kilogram class.

“We wanted to encourage them to … just focus on wrestling well and being happy with how they wrestled, rather than what the end result would be and I think they managed to do that,” St. Mary wrestling coach Roxanne Richards said.

“They had a lot of fun. Even the athletes that didn’t make it, they stuck around and they stayed to support their team and they encouraged them, so it was a good tournament.”

On the Carlton Comprehensive High School side, Grade 11 students Samantha Paradis and Maggie Tiessen won gold and silver in the 73- and 90-kilogram weight classes, respectively, and Grade 9 student Danika Lalonde picked up the bronze in the 44-kilogram class. Out of the 10 Carlton wrestlers who qualified for provincials, nine were girls. They collectively earned 31 points, good for second place for the provincial girls’ team title. There were also seven Grade 9 students on the team.

“I’m trying to build this team, and them being so young, I just wanted them to get that experience… It’s not often you get this many Grade 9s going to a provincial championship. That’s quite incredible for these Grade 9s to be there,” Carlton wrestling coach Kevin LaVallee said.

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