Wrestling Bring Home Haul from Sask Games

Four local wrestlers were able to find their way onto the podium last week at the 2018 Saskatchewan Winter Games in North Battleford.

The group was led by Kyle Yamniuk, who went undefeated on his way to a gold medal in the 60-kilogram weight class.

“It went pretty good and it felt great to win the gold,” said Yamniuk.

The Peacock Collegiate athlete had just three points scored against him over his six matches to top the podium.

“A lot of the matches were pretty tough, but I had a couple of easy ones too,” said Yamniuk. “It was a good learning experience going to next year and trying out for the Western Canada Games.”

Yamniuk has been wrestling for eight years and he said it was nice to see his hard work pay off with the hardware, “This was my biggest accomplishment in wrestling so far and will be a big confidence boost,” he said.

Connor Rowsell, also from Peacock, is in his first year of wrestling, but that didn’t stop him from finding the podium as he picked up a silver medal in the 95kg class.

“It was a lot of fun there,” said Rowsell on the experience at the Games.

He said he focused on attacking as much as possible during his matches and it paid off, “I fought more on the offensive side, I didn’t worry about defence,” said Rowsell.

Central Collegiate wrestler Hannah Watt came away with a silver medal as well, finishing second in the 67-75kg class.

Justin Wiens, another Peacock wrestler, bounced back from a rough start to put together a dominating performance in his final two matches in the 54kg class to help Team South West to a bronze medal in team duels.

It was actually the third medal of the Games for Wiens, who also won gold in the Judo Skills Competition 50+kg class and silver in the Judo Individual under-60kg class.

The local wrestlers won’t get any rest as they switch gears from the Saskatchewan Winter Games to the SHSAA wrestling regionals this weekend in Swift Current.