A group of teenage athletes representing Yorkton Regional High School (YRHS) captured gold and silver medals at a recent tournament, capping off months of hard work and training.
Riley Richards, Kurt Hoffman, and Jordan Stewart seized glory at the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association’s (SHSAA) 2018 Provincial Wrestling Championships. The two-day tournament was held Mar. 9-10 at Mount Royal Collegiate in Saskatoon.
“They were doing really well all year,” said wrestling coach Austin Hovrisko. “It isn’t really until provincials that you get the real test.”
Richards and Stewart competed in the male 90 kg division while Hoffman threw his hat into the male 100 kg weight class.
“They wrestled really well,” Hovrisko said. “I’m really impressed with them.”
Hoffman captured gold in his division, overcoming pre-competition jitters.
“I was a bit nervous off the start,” he said. “The more I got into the tournament, the more I was confident with how I was going to do.”
Richards and Stewart scored gold and silver medals, respectively, in their weight class.
“It felt really good getting a victory under my belt,” Richards said.
“I felt my matches were really good,” Stewart said. “We gave it our all.
“Can’t ask for much more than that.”
Fellow teammate Katelynne Hoffman also competed in the tournament, ranking fifth in the female 80 kg division.
Hovrisko complimented the wrestlers’ “mental maturity” during the competition.
“They see themselves as the alpha males out there, which is pretty critical,” he said. “It’s a combative sport [that’s] really hard on the nerves.
“They were in a good space and it showed.”
Hovrisko and the wrestlers also credited their recent weightlifting training as key to their victories (as seen in last week’s “Newbie weightlifters score multiple medals” story).
“The weightlifting helped quite a bit,” Hovrisko said. “[It was] the best thing we could have done.”
“I was much faster, a lot more powerful,” Hoffman said. “If I didn’t do Olympic weightlifting, I would have struggled to do the tournament.”
The team is scheduled to participate in Sakatchewan Amateur Wrestling Association’s Juvenile Provincial Championships on Apr. 1 in Regina.
Hovrisko plans to hone the wrestlers skills going forward.
“We’re going to start branching to see what each individual wrestler [prefers],” he said. “Take them to the next level.”
