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Saskatoon wrestlers Kelsie Boszak and Kelsey Gsell share a first name, a school and now a title: Canadian champion.
The Grade 10 Mount Royal Collegiate students topped their respective divisions Saturday during the Canadian cadet and juvenile wrestling championships at CNH Place. Boszak won the 49-kilogram class, while Gsell triumphed in the 70-kg division.
"We think both of them can be numerous-time national champions," said Saskatoon Wrestling Club coach Shane Bradley. "We're very excited about where they can go in this sport."
Other Saskatoon wrestlers capturing gold were Kathleen Kent in the juvenile 56 kg and Natasha Kramble in the juvenile 46 kg. Both are with the Junior Huskies.
Boszak comes from a wrestling family. Her brothers, Daniel and Tyler, both won medals at cadet nationals in Grade 10. Tyler went on to win silver at the Pan American championships in Chile.
"If I ever needed help, I'd just go to them and they'd give me good hints," said Kelsie Boszak.
She rewarded that brotherly love and support Saturday with a dominant performance in the final against British Columbia's Emma Watt.
"I've been working extremely hard and it all paid off," said Boszak, who upgraded provincial bronze to national gold. "It was exciting and kind of emotional."
Neither golden girl could stop grinning.
Wrestling has helped Boszak and Gsell rekindle a friendship that began at Montgomery Elementary School.
"Kelsie was one of the people who told me I should join wrestling," said Gsell. "Like her, I didn't really like it when I was younger. I joined high school wrestling and was successful with it. Then after high school provincials, I joined Junior Huskies."
Gsell reached the national summit in her first season of club wrestling. In Saturday's final, she won the first period 6-0. Her inexperience surfaced in the second round as she was edged 1-0 by Alberta's Emily Byvank. However, the Saskatonian reversed the score in the decisive third period.
"That's what champions do," said coach Bradley. "It doesn't have to be pretty all the time, but they find a way to win."
cwolfe@sp.canwest.com
Brittany Mitchell of the Tartan Wrestling Club in Regina picked up a silver medal at the 2008 Cadet/Juvenile Freestyle National Wrestling Championships in Saskatoon on the weekend.
Mitchell's performance came in the cadet girls 43-kilogram division. Other medallists from the Tartan were: Nicole Corbin (bronze, cadet girls 49kg) and Andrea Nillson (silver, juvenile girls 70kg).
Samantha Rubisch of the Regina Northwest Wrestling Club placed third in the cadet girls 80kg.
SASKATOON - Jean-Francois Godin of the Club de Lutte Acadie-Bathurst claimed a gold medal at the Canadian juvenile/cadet wrestling championships on the weekend.
Godin won the juvenile men's 50 kilogram Greco-Roman division and was selected the meet's most outstanding men's Greco-Roman wrestler. He also captured a silver medal in the juvenile men's 50 kg freestyle category.
Emilie Guitard, also of the Bathurst club, won a silver medal in the juvenile women's 49 kg freestyle class while Kristen Daigle of Rexton's Kent Wrestling Club picked up a bronze medal in the cadet women's 65 kg freestyle division.
Julia Murray of the Kent club placed fourth in cadet women's 49 kg freestyle class and teammate Kelsey MacDonald came in fourth in the cadet women's 70 kg freestyle category. Katrina Cormier of the Bathurst club was sixth in the cadet women's 52 kg freestyle class.
Join in Voting for Courageous Tuvan Female Wrestler! Two days left |
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Opening the page at www.sib21vek.ru which is in
Russian you will see all 30 nominees, mark the ones you selected (there will
appear a phrase that you have marked 2 and 5 are left, then 3 and 4 are left,
etc) print in cyrillic letters you see and then press ПРОГОЛОСОВАТЬ, which means
VOTE and your voice will be counted. From a single computer one can vote during
a day only once not to make the jury punish your nominee. Vote a Tuvan to the
Siberian of the Year! And make your friends do the same!
Last year Lorisa Oorzhak and Anna Polovneva, along with Russia's national team coach Victor Raikov got in a car accident on Saturday morning going from Krasnoyarsk to Nazarovo. The car driven by Raikov hit the edge of the pavement and crashed against a bus stop. Raikov suffered thorax fracture and a knee injury. Polovneva received a shock and an acute spinal cord pain. Oorzhak had a kidney and jejunum breaches and shoulder dislocation. Her kidney was eliminated. After a rehabilitation period Losia got back to hard training. She is the main Olympic hope of Tuva. |
Voting for the best Siberian people finishes tomorrow, April 16 on Lampe qualifies for Olympic Trials
U.S. Olympic Education Center freestyle resident
athlete Alyssa Lampe qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials by
capturing the silver medal at the Women’s University Nationals held at
the University of Akron Sunday April 13, 2008.
Lampe was defeated by Sara-Fulp Allen 7-1, 6-0 in the
gold medal final as both qualified for the Olympic Trials by nature of
making the final round in the 48kg Olympic weight class; all finalists
in Olympic weight classes qualified for the Olympic Trials.
Just 2 weeks ago, USOEC team mate Sadie Kaneda qualified for the U.S.
Olympic Team Trials when Lampe decided to wrestle 51kg, up one weight
class, at the Women’s College Wrestling Association
Nationals minutes before the weigh ins. Champions of the WCWA nationals
received automatic bids to the Olympic Trials and Kaneda won
the 48kg weight class while taking third at the Women’s University Nationals.
Both Lampe and Kaneda own victories over the non-Olympic weight class
51kg 2008 Women’s University Nationals finalists and
opted to qualify for the Olympic Trials while forgoing the opportunity
to represent Team USA at the 8th World University Championships.
Champions or the next available place winner at Women’s University
Nationals qualify to wrestle at the 8th World University Championships to
be held latter this summer in Greece.
The final Olympic qualifier the USOEC freestyle residents will attend
is Senior Nationals in Las Vegas scheduled for Friday April 25, 2008.
The top 7 wrestlers per Olympic weight and top 4 per
non-Olympic weight classes at Sr. Nationals qualify for the U.S. Olympic
Team Trials June 13-15, 2008 also in Las Vegas.
The USOEC freestyle residents won 4 medals over all and placed 8
wrestlers in the top 6.
In February, 1989, the U.S. Olympic Committee named Northern Michigan
University (NMU) as the nation's only United States Olympic Education
Center (USOEC). The USOEC's main focus is the resident athlete training
program, where athletes actively train for the Olympic Games while also
continuing their education.
Generally, athletes in this program must be nationally
ranked and also approved by their national governing body (NGB), the
USOEC, and NMU.
The USOEC has resident athlete training programs in
freestyle wrestling, short track speedskating, Greco-Roman
wrestling, and weightlifting.
USOEC University Nationals results
48 kg 2nd Place – Alyssa Lampe
48 kg 3rd Place – Sadie Kaneda
55 kg 3rd Place – Amy Borgnini
55 kg 4th Place – Whitney Conder
55 kg DNP – Shyla Iokia
59 kg 3rd Place – Nicole Darrow
59 kg 5th Place – Amber Miracle
59 kg 6th Place – Dany Hedin
72 kg 4th Place – Ku`u Johnson
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