Wrestling Wrap-up

The young men and women of the King’s-Edgehill School wrestling team had a fitting finish to the season this past Saturday at the School Sport Nova Scotia Provincial Wrestling Championships. Our team, many of them new to the sport, travelled a long road to get there from the beginning of the season. They stayed fit, worked extremely hard to improve their technical skills, and showed a great balance between their academic and athletic responsibilities.

Their results were commensurate with all these efforts. Our senior girls team, despite having only five wrestlers and with Elizabeth Hardy ‘24 having no one in her weight class (her regular opponent moved up a weight class to get away from her), still came within one point of earning first place. They were led by a dominant performance by Frances Aceron ‘24, who made the transition from wrestling superfan and volunteer to competitor. Spectators could not believe she had never wrestled before, given her physical and technical dismantling of her opponent to win a gold medal. Claire Morton ‘24 also won a gold medal, handily defeating her opponent in a best two out of three contest. Sofia Lohr ‘24 bravely returned from an injury that had sidelined her for much of the season to finish in fifth place, and Romina Gutierrez ‘25 earned a bronze medal in her first-ever wrestling competition.

Our senior boys also performed admirably. Inyong Hwang ‘26 finished in third place in a particularly competitive weight class, and Colton Phillips ‘26 also had an excellent day. Both of these Grade 11’s proved that they will help provide the bedrock on which this program stands on next year. Yuta Takahashi ‘24 finished in third place in another heavily populated, very competitive weight class. He still has the best double-leg in the province; a skill that will serve him well as he starts the rugby season, where he will captain that team as well. The highlight of the senior boys team was captain Graydon Spence ‘24. He went 5-0 to dominate his 20-plus competitor weight division. He wrestled the most technical matches this coach has seen in a long time, all while staying cool, calm, and collected.

Our junior boys, made up mostly of young athletes new to the sport, earned a third place win against teams with numerical advantages. Ewan Shaw ‘30 and Caleb DeCoste ‘30 proved the value of a good training partner when they earned silver and bronze medals, respectively. Oliver Boyle ‘30 finished the season by wrestling against particularly skilled, older wrestlers. He will be a force to be reckoned with when he gets more experience. One of the highlights of the day was the beautiful, modified fireman’s carry Kenta Matsuda ‘27 performed on his way to a third-place finish in his weight class. Kenta is a powerhouse of a young man whose technical skills became more impressive by the day this season. Our most experienced wrestler, Giacomo Pogliani ‘27, also won gold in mostly one-sided matches. His technical skills and mental toughness helped him win the day, and we are looking forward to seeing what he can do at the senior level.

King’s-Edgehill is asked time and again to host wrestling provincials. Our school always puts on a great event mainly because of the huge amount of help we receive from so many people. Our physical plant staff helped to set everything up and take things down, the girls rugby team put on another excellent canteen, Ms. Jennie Weisner and her athletic therapy staff took good care of many of the student-athletes, and our Head of School Mr. Joe Seagram had very encouraging words during the opening ceremonies. A special thank you goes to Captain James Skafte and the members of the 254 King's-Edgehill School Highland Cadet Corps for helping make the opening and closing ceremonies so special, especially given that this was the 29^th and final provincial championship for Mr. Kim Walsh.