It's been a busy few months for the local wrestling contingent, topped off with the recent qualifier for the Ontario Winter Games that would see a total of seven members of the Rayside Wrestling Club advance to the competition set for Huntsville in March. Wrestlers winning Gold in Elliot Lake and earning a berth on the North Eastern Ontario Wrestling team included:

In addition, Derek Galloway, Alex Brazeau and Alanah Day were all Silver medallists, named as alternates to the Ontario Winter Games team.

A near perfect weekend for the Rayside Wrestling Club in Sault Ste Marie in early December as eight wrestlers attended, with all reaching the finals of their respective weight classes. The Korah Invitational provided an excellent tune-up for many of the young athletes who would compete at the North East Ontario Championships the next weekend in Elliot Lake.

Following are results for all eight competitors:

A December tradition in the realm of local high-school wrestling as "The Boot" returns to Confederation Secondary, with an even dozen teams assembling for the single day competition, including an entry from Timmins. The event serves as a wonderful pre-cursor to the SDSSA Ron Preston City Championships in the new year, with the bulk of OFSSA hopefuls on hand.

The team trophy was garnered by the College Notre-Dame Alouettes, who racked up an average of 6.75 points/wrestler as meet organizers looked for a way to balance of the discrepencies in the sizes of teams for the various schools. Essentially, any school which fielded a minimum of four wrestlers was eligible for the team championship.

The team standings for the event were as follows:

On the individual side, returning OFSSA medallists Spencer Burton (Chelmsford) and Mercedes Byrnes (Champlain) were among the weight group winners. The complete list of first place finishers is as follows:

A handful of wrestlers with local connections who performed well at the Ontario Senior Championships in Barrie in late November. Former Sudbury Secondary wrestler Diana Ford, now with Brock University, picked up Gold in the Senior Women's 51 kg weight class while Dylan Byrnes (Champlain) walked away with Silver in the Senior Men's 96 kg division.

Still with Diana Ford, who continues to gain international exposure, finishing third at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships held in India earlier this month. Ford is also slated to be in Sudbury on December 28th and 29th, serving as head clinician for the NEO Regional Wrestling Camp being held next week at the Sudbury Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu studios (Montrose Mall).

And in some of the biggest local wrestling news of the year, Sudbury has been chosen to host the Ontario Junior Wrestling Championships later next month. The competition, which features many of the province's top high-school and university wrestlers under the age of 19, will take place on Saturday, January 30th at Ecole Secondaire Macdonald-Cartier from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.

Organizers are still looking for additional volunteer help, specifically in the area of scorekeeping. Anyone interested in picking up community hours towards their high-school degree or simply willing to lend a hand should contact Paul Berthiaume at "chelmsfordwrestling@hotmail.com" .