A Port Alberni wrestling alumnus picked up a win for Team BC at the Canada Summer Games.
Port Alberni’s Paige Maher represented British Columbia at the 2022 Canada Summer Games in Niagara earlier this month. Maher, who wrestles for Simon Fraser University (SFU), was injured at the National Championships in May and had to work hard to get ready for the Games. She was selected as team captain for Team BC and left no doubt she was the right person to lead the team, as she was dominant in both team and individual events.
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Days one and two of competition included dual meets, a format that sees teams from each province competing against each other. In a dual meet, each teammate wrestles the opposing team’s member of equal weight, the winner scoring points for their team. Team BC was pooled with teams from Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador and Yukon Territory.
A strong Team BC won all dual meets in their pool, putting them in a position to compete for first place against the always formidable Team Ontario, the winner of pool B. The match was extremely close, and it was Maher at 74kg who secured the victory for her team. Team BC won the dual meet over Team Ontario by a final score of 27-22.
Day three of competition saw individuals compete for the chance to win gold. Maher continued to overwhelm opponents as she had done the in the team competition. She surrendered only two points the entire tournament and excited the crowd with an enormous suplex throw, a five-point move that involves throwing an opponent from their feet to their back—where at the apex of the throw, the opponent’s feet are over their head.
Maher returns to Port Alberni with her two gold medals to rest for a couple of weeks before returning to SFU, where she will continue her studies and training for her second year of NCAA competition.