Cochrane Cowboys wrestler Connor McNeice won gold Aug. 11 at the Western Canada Summer Games in Wood Buffalo. He was one of three Cowboys to medal at the Games, with Brendan McKeage taking silver in the 54-kilogram male event.
Cochrane’s Connor Pointen was fourth in the 100-kg male competition, but took home silver for Team Alberta’s second-place finish at the Games. B.C. won the team wrestling title.
Currently at the top of a load cycle in preparation for the World Cadet Wrestling Championships later this month in Bosnia, McNeice carved through the Western Canada Games wrestling competition Aug. 9-11 in the 58-kilogram male division. The 16-year-old St. Timothy School student went undefeated in six matches (one walkover), defeating B.C.’s Amar Atwal in the gold-medal match.
“It’s definitely been helping me,” he said of a spring/summer in which he won a national title in April and silver July 5 at the Pan-American Cadet Wrestling Championships in Mexico. He’s also been training at elite levels in the U.S. and Europe. “If I compare myself from even a couple of months ago at nationals and now, I think I’ve improved a lot. I wouldn’t even recognize myself if I wrestled. All the training I’ve been doing has definitely benefitted me.
“I’m peaking right now. I’m doing a load cycle where I should be peaking for worlds. So I’m just excited just to see how everything goes.”
Cowboys and Team Alberta coach, and Connor’s dad, Vern McNeice couldn’t be more pleased with the effort of Cochrane’s wrestlers. McNeice will accompany son Connor to the World Championships as a coach for Canada’s wrestling team.
He was particularly pleased with Pointen’s effort.
“He was growing like a weed in the spring, so we figured he’d go at 100 kilos,” coach McNeice said of having Pointen wrestle at 100 kg in Wood Buffalo. “He was almost 90 kilos when he qualified. The bugger, he’s been training so hard all summer he leaned down to about 83 kilos. He barely made the minimum weight.
“He was wrestling guys 30-40 pounds heavier than him.”
In triathlon, Cochrane’s Mackenzie Gladue took bronze in the female and mixed team relays. Mason Smith won four bronze and a silver in artistic gymnastics and Brielle Thorsen won three bronze in female rowing. Laura Huck finished eighth in female 400-metre hurdles and Emily Rendell was eighth in female 100-metre sprint.
