W.R. Myers wrestlers medal at provincials

By Greg Price
Taber Times
gprice@tabertimes.com

W.R. Myers Rebels wrestling team capped off a successful season earlier this month at provincials in Sherwood Park, with a couple of grapplers medaling in the process.

Kathrin Waeckerlin ended up taking the silver medal in her weight class.

“Coming off her gold-medal finish at rurals, she had a lot of momentum going into provincials. She had a couple of tough matches, including giving me a couple of grey hairs in her match leading up to her gold-medal match,” said Emmitt Campbell, a coach with the W.R. Myers Rebels wrestling team. “The gold medal match, she had a really good match. The other wrestler was very strong. She won the match, but I didn’t feel like she beat Kathrin. Kathrin’s game is she slows the pace down to her level, where she grinds things out, forcing her will and doing the things she wants done. She is very diverse at what she does, so she keeps a lot of opponents on their toes.”

Peter Waeckerlin took bronze in his weight class in one of the more entertaining matches.

“He had just an anomaly he wrestled in his crossover (that pushed him to the bronze-medal match). The guy just literally muscled him and threw him around and that guy ended up winning gold,” said Campbell. “For bronze, Peter ended up wrestling a guy from Winston Churchill out of Lethbridge and it was an absolute dog fight. Peter left it all out there and ended up tossing him for a pin the later part of the second round. He’s faced the guy a few times this year and he’s only been able to beat him once. But Peter beat him again when it counted in a very tough bracket.”

Helena Froese finished in sixth place in what Campbell referred to one of, if not the toughest categories in the province.

“She’d be outwrestling and outworking some of these kids, and then all the sudden they have a little more strength or experience or are coached a little different where Helena would get beat with something very small at the end,” said Campbell. “I was so proud of how she did.”

Froese would end up winning an ASAA sportsmanship award with the respect she showed a fallen opponent.

“She had a match against a girl from Olds. She wrestled her at rurals, and it was an all-out war, so I was really looking forward to that match. But they cinched up and when they stepped out you could see how the girl from Olds stepped that her ankle was done,” said Campbell. “She stepped and fell back. Helena was just being Helena and stopped and helped carry her over to the medical centre. She epitomized was it is to be a good sport.”

The injury bug bit the Rebels as well as Dakota Foster placed sixth as well, not being able to grapple at full speed.

“Sadly, his first match, he wrecked his knee and sprained his ankle. he stepped in for a toss and his opponent got out of it by rolling down his leg essentially,” said Campbell. “It was a freak accident. What can you do? I was looking forward to see what he could do against some other guys from Edmonton. But he still has a couple of years left yet and he had a strong showing this year.”

Liesl Steinborn was not able to place, but Campbell noted Steinborn flashed her improved wrestling skills from the beginning of the year.

“She had her best matches all year at provincials,” said Campbell.