Green and Gold grapplers looking to turn heads at Canada West finals

Aaron Yeo

The U of A's best will hit the mats in a little over a weeks time, when they travel to Calgary for the Canada West wrestling championships.

While the Bears' 10-man roster is yet to be finalized the Pandas are all set to go with their eight-member roster. The team of 18 will compete in the two-day competition before setting their eyes on CIS Championship, which will also go in the Stampede City come March.



This year's Can West final will be a difficult task for the Green and Gold, as the top-four women's teams in the country — Calgary, Simon Fraser, Regina, and Saskatchewan — along with number-one ranked Simon Fraser Clan on the men's side, will all be in Calgary. Alberta head coach Owen Dawkins though is looking forward to the stiff competition.

“I'm excited to watch our guys — I’ve seen everyone else wrestle, and I want to to see how our guys have progressed over the year and how their confidence has increased,” Dawkins said.

“I'm more excited to see how our guys have become accustomed to the training regime, and how they have adapted to what we have been planning.”

In particular, four-time consecutive CIS champ and former U.S. Olympian Ali Bernard will be competing in the 82kg class. Bernard will be the heavy favourite to capture the title in the division, and will be looking to take a step towards making history as well.

"She's going for her fifth CIS wrestling championship and that's never been done by any other women," Dawkins pointed out.

In preparation for the event, Dawkins has pushed the team hard on and off the mats, and is preaching a much more thorough training regimen this time around.

“I came in and asked our varsity athletes to do 100 per cent more then they were doing before. It's tough, but I asked them to go from training once a day just on the wrestling mat, to twice a day, Monday to Friday, and once on Saturday,” Dawkins explained.

"They've been asked to do a lot more, but I think they have rose to the occasion and I think they're ready to go.”

Just a mere nine months since Coach Owen Dawkins joined the club, both the Bears and Pandas sides have seen great improvement. Though they're sitting fourth and fifth respectively in Canada West, Dawkins expects great things from his club.

“We are young; I mean, we had 19 freshmen on the team this year. That's unheard of. The growth is huge, the learning curve is very steep. My goal is to keep this group together. If you can keep a group together its almost near impossible not to grow together and become a better team.”

As the “little cousin” to many of the other clubs in Canada West, there will be growing pains for the youthful Alberta wrestlers, but expect up and comers like Jason Laos, Haley Smith, James Yurick, and Conor Melauy to step it up and surprise.