Southern Alberta Rumble

Westwind Weekly News Photo submitted by David Clyde Walters CHAMPIONS: High school wrestlers from throughout the region gathered at Stirling School in Stirling on Feb. 23-24 for the ASAA Rural Provincial Wrestling Championship. (Above) Pictured is a Stirling team.

By David Clyde Walters

You may have felt a rumble this weekend as 29 high school wrestling teams from all over rural Alberta gathered in tiny Stirling, Alta. to battle it out for the ASAA Rural Provincial Wrestling championships in Stirling. Southern Alberta schools took seven of the top eight places overall. LCI earned 56 points, Raymond 43, Medicine Hat 36, Stirling 36, Brooks 29, Wetaskiwin 27, Cardston 25, WR Myers 22, Victoria Park took 13th place with 10 points, and Chinook High placed 14th with nine points.

But it wasn’t all rough and tumble, the tournament started off with some fun exhibition wrestling and a charity Teddy Bear Toss that filled the Stirling gymnasium floor with hundreds of teddy bears that were donated to the local fire department for distribution. After two days of grueling matches, southern Alberta wrestlers brought home the following ASAA Banners to hang in their home gymnasiums:

ASAA 1A/2A Girls (Raymond High), ASAA 1A/2A Boys (Stirling School)

ASAA 3A Girls (St. Joseph’s Composite), ASAA 3A Boys (Cardston High)

ASAA 4A Girls (Lethbridge Collegiate Institute), ASAA 44A Boys (LCI)

Wrestling is an individual sport as well as a team effort. The following individuals earned Gold, Silver and Bronze medals at the tournament, and the top 5 places qualify for the Provincial Championships in Edmonton on March 8-9 2024.

Male 50kg Darien Smith (Grand Prairie Composite) 1ST, Gideon Young (Stirling School) 2ND, Bahati Butoyi (Medicine Hat High) 3RD

53kg Janvier Bukuru (Medicine Hat High – 4A) 1st, Grady Steed (Lethbridge Collegiate – 4A)2ND

56kg Dallin Comin (Cardston High – 3A) 1ST, Payton Wilde (Stirling School – 1A) 2ND, Kalan Chiu (Wetaskiwin Composite – 3A) 3RD

59kg C. Friend (Beiseker School) 1ST, Morgan Hill (Cochrane High) 2ND, Wilson Michel (Raymond High) 3RD, John Adams 4TH

62Kg Austin Franczak (David Thompson ) 1st, Jayden Jensen (Raymond) 2nd, Mazen Al-Yassine (Medicine Hat) 3rd

65kg Christien Lowry (Lethbridge Collegiate) 1ST, Adrian Quinteros (Stirling School) 2ND, Konner Partington (Wetaskiwin) 3RD.

68kg Thomas Ellis-Toddington (LCI) 1ST, Kade Walters (Stirling) 2nd, Truman Hellawell (Crescent Heights) 3RD.

72kg Solomon Prenevost (LCI) 1st, Omni Lowry (LCI) 2nd, Flint Wiggins (David Thompson ) 3rd.

76kg Russell Comin (Cardston High) 1st, Jacob Gustafson (St Joseph`s Catholic High) 2nd

82kg Brock Seely (Stirling School) 1st, John Manns (Wetaskiwin) 2nd, Emery Ringuette (Assumption High) 3rd.

90kg Corbin Thomas (Ecole McTavish Fort McMurray) 1st, Dominik Stewart (Charles Spencer) 2nd, Nolan Tallman (Cardston) 3rd.

98kg Tony Peters (W.R. Myers) 1ST, Jaren Ailamoana (Grand Prairie) 2nd, Ben Shipley (Cardston) 3rd, Nikolas Binnie (W.R. Myers) 4th.

108kg William Kozakewich (Medicine Hat) 1st, Samuel Thiele (St. Joseph`s) 2nd, Alex Printer (Sexsmith) 3rd.

120kg Ben Gardner (W.R. Myers) st, Ben Atwood (W.R. Myers) 2nd.

120+ Lowrence Jada (St. Joseph`s Collegiate) 1st.

Female 44kg Caitlyn Mora (Raymond High)1st.

50kg Summer Cutler (Raymond High) 1st.

53kg Reese Ferguson (Chinook High) 1st, Shanaelle Zumbach (Raymond) 2nd, Hailey Romeril (Raymond) 3rd.

57kg Laurianne Zumbach (Raymond High) 1st, Amelia Prenevost (LCI) 2nd, Jessica Froese (Raymond) 3rd, Kizzia Jensen (Raymond) 4th.

61kg Payton Shields (LCI) 1st, Chendra Clements (St Jean Paul) 2nd, Mielle Colico (St. Joseph`s) 3rd.

65kg Kimberley Maine (Victoria Park) 1st, Emily Deline (St. Joseph`s) 2nd, Zaynna Willoughby (MedHat) 3rd.

70kg Brooke O`Connor (Wetaskiwin) 1st, Kiana Ivey (Med Hat) 2nd, Emmy Selk (LCI) 3rd.

75kg Anyah Paalam (St Joseph`s) 1st.

82kg Elizabeth Zacharias (St Joseph`s Catholic High) 1st, Cienna Henry (Raymond High) 2nd.

90kg Harlie Salmon (Raymond High) 1st.

90+kg Lidia Jada (St. Joseph`s Collegiate) 1st.