Campbell River athletes made a big contribution to the Vancouver Island Wrestling Team who won gold in the team head to head portion of the BC Summer Games.
The 2022 Summer Games took place in Prince George from July 21 to 24. This exciting portion of the games had each zone select a wrestler from every weight class to compete against wrestlers of the same weight in a zone vs zone points battle, to decide which zone would advance to the next round. The wrestlers from across Vancouver Island, including four from the Campbell River area, made up 1 of 8 zones, and they faced off against the tournament’s two powerhouse teams from the Vancouver area. The Vancouver Island team showed their skill and grit by winning the duels in dramatic fashion.
Campbell River wrestlers made a significant impact on day one with Ronin Jordan starting the Island team’s matches with a 10-0 dominant win against a talented wrestler from the Fraser River team who was fresh off a 4th place finish at the Canadian Under 15 Wrestling Championship. In the last bout of the day, Kelsey Grothen closed the tournament with a dominant pin to solidify the gold against the team from the Fraser Valley.
On day two in the individual competitions, Kelsey Grothen took home gold, Fayth Pontious took Silver, while Ronin Jordan took Bronze. Torin Brooks placed 6th in the deepest division that the four Campbell River teens faced. When the individual competitions were tallied, the Vancouver Island Team left with another Bronze medal for combined individual scores in a hardware-heavy weekend for the Campbell River wrestlers.
All four teens make up a portion of the Campbell River wrestling program’s young core and all four will have another chance at the BC Summer games in 2024.