The ADSS Armada had an outstanding team performance this weekend at the prestigious Western Canada Age Class in Kamloops.
The Armada won the team title with 97 points, narrowly surpassing a very large Vancouver College team who accrued 94 points. WJ Mouat of Abbotsford secured third place with 75 points.
“Our win was a total team effort,” head coach John McDonald said. “With the point spread being so close between first and second, every one of our wrestlers had to contribute to win the team championship.”
Individually, ADSS had eight gold medal performances. Grade 12 Juvenile Lane Harris led the way with an impressive gold medal victory at 84 kg. Following suit were first place finishes by Owen Spencer (57 kg Cadet Male), Ravi Manhas (45kg Juvenile Male), Aaron Badovinac (78 kg Juvenile Male ), William Merry (130 kg Cadet Male), Jayce Clayton (84 kg Cadet Male), Jayden Iversen (70 kg Cadet Male), and Morgan Dagenais (60 kg Juvenile Female).
Aaron Badovinac was voted Most Outstanding Juvenile Male Wrestler. He was recognized by coaches for dominating all of his matches and not giving up a single point to any of his opponents.
Capturing silver medals for the Armada were Paige Maher who wrestled up an age division (75kg Cadet Female), Scott Coulthart (Cadet Male 84kg), Trevor Barker (Juvenile Male 54 kg), and Seth Price (Cadet Male 51kg). Winning bronze medals were Trenton Vanderkooi (110 kg Juvenile Male), and Daniel Spencer (78 kg Juvenile Male).
Scoring valuable team points were Miranda Barker, 4th at 75 kg Cadet Female, and Isaac McDonald, 5th at Juvenile Male 63 kg.
Showing strong performances but finishing just out of placings were Darien Van Ingen (54 kg Cadet Male) and Prateesh Giri (57 kg Cadet Male).
“Alberni coaches are proud of how well the athletes are performing on and off the mats,” stated coach Chris Bodnar.
“We are very excited to see how well the Armada will do come six weeks when we compete for a provincial title.”