Pennant wrestler wins bronze at nationals

By David McIver

Elrose Wrestling Club members had “a bit of an up-and-down” experience at the national championship meet in Grande Prairie, Alta., during the April 25 weekend, said club coach Russell Fersch in a report.

Payton Allin of Pennant won a bronze medal in the female under-17 61-kilogram class.

“She wrestled really good, with her only loss to last year’s national champion. She pinned all of her opponents,” said Fersch.

Naim Robertson of Rosetown “wrestled his best match he has ever wrestled at nationals. That is all that you can ask from an athlete. He made huge gains in his final month preparing for nationals,” said the coach.

In his first match, Easton Stan of Kyle “didn’t wrestle the style he wanted to. The second match he wrestled his style and it was a very close match, as he had an opportunity to pin his opponent. For a rookie kid to be able to go toe to toe with some of the top kids in Canada is impressive,” said Fersch.

Lena Ellingson of Elrose “has been wrestling with lots of confidence this year, but she didn’t have the confidence come nationals. She was just off, as she lost to an opponent she completely dominated up at Edmonton in late January. She was very capable of medalling at the very least,” he said.

For Reese Allin of Pennant, it was “a similar story as Lena, as she didn’t have the confidence in herself,” wrote Fersch, because she got dominated by a girl she had beaten at club provincials a couple of weeks earlier.

“Reese was very capable of winning gold,” he said.

“The kids prepared really well for nationals and they all made huge gains in the final month. It was a fail on my part to assume Lena and Reese would be walking into nationals with confidence, as that is how they had been wrestling, but it wasn’t the case.

“All of the wrestlers except for Lena are first-year wrestlers in their age group, so should lead to better performance come next year’s nationals,” concluded Fersch.