Dogs fall to Eagles, another busy week to come, Alberni Wrestling Update, SID'S BACK!

A tough loss for the Dogs to end their weekend yesterday as they fell to the Eagles in Surrey by a 2-1 score. As I said on the post game show - yes a LOSS is a LOSS anyway you slice it. However, I would much rather see a hard fought loss like yesterday, instead of a no-fight loss like we saw Saturday at home to Coquitlam Saturday night. They battled hard, they were right in it, and they were a bounce away from winning it or claiming at least a point, as opposed to the night before where they looked right out of it. Just my two cents.

Check out my "Weekly Recap" from the Dogs website here

Here's the latest Alberni Wrestling update, with thanks to James Messenger for sending it along....

Alberni Wrestlers Hone Skills at Harbour City Hubbub

Wrestlers from the Alberni Valley Wrestling Club travelled to Nanaimo to compete at the second annual Harbour City Hubbub Takedown Competition at Dover Bay Secondary.  Despite it being an early season exhibition event the Alberni Wrestlers already showed signs that they will be a force to be reckoned with on the mats this season.

The event featured a unique format where wrestlers only competed to take each other down. In regular freestyle wrestling once you take your opponent down you try to turn them to score points and ultimately pin them.  At this tournament wrestlers had to stand up as soon as the takedown was complete.  Alberni Coach James Messenger commented, “the idea behind an exhibition event like this is to have wrestlers develop their takedown skills, develop their conditioning, and encourage offensive wrestling.”

Eight Alberni wrestlers went undefeated in route to winning their weight classes and claiming the title of Takedown Champion.  ADSS wrestlers Remi Wells, Jesse Wagner, Johannes Kulich, Nolan Badovinac, and Connor McDonald all went undefeated, illustrating the depth and strength the Armada team will have this season.  Middle School wrestlers Julia McGowan, Micaela Dick, and Jamie Durning all from EJ Dunn also went undefeated proving their middle school will once again be one of the top developmental programs in the province.

A number of Alberni’s upcoming wrestlers lost to only one opponent to finish second in their pools.  Emma Vanderlee, Jordan Wagner, Russell David and Christian Anderson all lost hard fought battles to the eventual champions in their weight divisions.  Commenting on the performance of these wrestlers, ADSS and club coach Chris Bodnar, had this to say, “we lost some matches we probably wouldn’t normally loose.  Then again we won some we probably shouldn’t have too.  Since this was a beginning of the season warm-up competition the rounds were only one minute in length as opposed to two.  As a result wrestlers had very little time to recover from early leads that they might have given their opponents.  Even in some of the matches that we lost I thought our wrestlers looked good. They are doing the fundamental things we have been focusing on. Their conditioning looks good for this time of the year as well.  I am pleased with how we wrestled.”

Rounding out the placings for Alberni were Bailey Durning (3rd), Breylen Hutchings (3rd), Samantha Anderson (3rd) Isabella Larsen (3rd) Michel Kurucz (3rd), Eryk McKenzie (3rd), Sheldon Haddad (3rd), Riley Neville (3rd), Jonathan Spencer (3rd), Lauren Barker (4th), Trevor Barker (4th), Tristan Schulz (4th), Oliver Witham (4th), and Aaron Badovinac.

Novice wrestlers from Neill, EJ Dunn and ADSS will practice this week in preparation for the Island Novice Tournament in Victoria November 26th. Experienced wrestlers will take the weekend off.  Their next competition will be the Cougar Invitational in Chemanius or the Roberts Rumble in Burnaby December 3rd. 






 



And finally - last but not least - you MAY OR MAY NOT have heard that Sidney Crosby has missed a couple hockey games recently...such as the last 10 months. Well he's FINALLY back tonight as the Pens host the Islanders. CBC has picked up the game nationally, so I know where I'll be this afternoon - on the couch with the little guy continuing to teach him the "finer points" of the game. Here's hoping Sid has a smooth return. Some people - nay, most people - that I have talked to have said "3 or 4 points" I say the first hit will be interesting, and who will make it? 



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