The Alberni District Secondary School’s (ADSS) boys wrestling team won the Vancouver Island Secondary School Wrestling Championships for the 23rd consecutive year. It is the 35th time in the last 39 years that the Armada boys have won the title of Island Champions.
The ADSS boys finished ahead of second-place Spectrum of Victoria and Timberline of Campbell River. Meanwhile, the ADSS girls finished third behind host Queen Margaret’s School and Ucluelet Secondary School.
Individually, 13 wrestlers placed in the top 6 and qualified to represent ADSS at the BC High School Championships, which take place Feb. 23-25 in Vancouver.
Four Alberni wrestlers claimed the gold medals in their respective weight classes. Grant Coulthart (110 kg), Carter Duperron (78 kg), Alex McKenzie (57 kg) and Nolan Cross (38 kg) all went undefeated.
Danika Currie (54 kg), Kelcie Sam (47 kg), Gavin Fong (51 kg), and Kenneth Lucas (84 kg) all claimed silver medals. Sage Dzieken-Gwilt (69 kg) rounded out the podium finishes with bronze.
Grady Miller, Tony Nickel, Chase Klus-Brown, and Paige George all finished fourth.
“It was nice to see the boys keep the streak alive,” said ADSS coach Maureen Miller. “I was really happy with the level of grit our team showed today, even in the matches we lost. Where we lack in experience we are starting to make up for in grit. Every one of our wrestlers competed to the last second. Individually our gold medalists looked sharp and largely went uncontested. The wins are not going to come that easy at provincials so we are going to take the next two weeks to make sure we are ready for that next level.”
The wrestlers who are qualified and ready to compete at the provincial championship level will wrestle at the Pacific Coliseum on Feb. 24 and 25.