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A pair of medals lifts Sabres to 10th place

High school wrestling team wins silver, bronze at priovincial championships
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Dacious Richardson of Guildford Park Secondary (bottom) grapples with an opponent at the B.C. High School Wrestling Championships in Prince George. Richardson won a bronze medal in the 63 kg. class.

A very young Guildford Park Sabres wrestling team showed a lot of promise for the future at the provincial championships March 1 in Prince George.

Sabres wrestlers posted three top six finishes, won a pair of medals, and for the first time in three years cracked the top 10 in the team standings.

“We accomplished this positive result without any Grade 12 wrestlers on the squad and the majority of our team being Grade 10 or younger,” said Sabres coach Mark McRae.

Guildford Park tied with another Surrey school, the Queen Elizabeth Royals, for 10th place in the standings.

The best result from a Sabres wrestler came from Grade 10 wrestler Haseeb Javaid, the silver medalist in the 51 kg. weight class.

“This was a great result for Haseeb who had never medalled in a major tournament prior to this,” said McRae. “In only his second year as a wrestler this was a fantastic result.”

Dacious Richardson won a bronze medal in the 63 kg. class, just three weeks after injuring his shoulder.

“He had not wrestled at all leading up to the provincials and looked tentative in his first match but rebounded and ended up defeating the wrestler who had beaten in the first round,” said McRae. “Dacious is in Grade 11 and will be poised to win it all in 2015.”

Gagan Hundal added to the Sabres points total with a fourth place finish in the 54 kg. class, matching his result of a year ago. A Grade 10 student, he will likely be among the gold medal contenders next season.

“Having all of our wrestlers returning in 2015, I expect the Sabres wrestling program to once again be contending for the team title next year,” said McRae. “The kids are pumped already at the prospects of putting another banner in the gym.”

Queen Elizabeth also earned a second, third and fourth place finish. Jason Bains took the silver medal in the 100 kg. class, losing to Brad Hildenbrandt of Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary in the final.

Sukhrajan Sekhon won a bronze medal in the 74 kg. group while Sam Singh was fourth in the 130 kg. category.

Other medalists from local schools included Sajan Atwal of Delview Secondary (gold medal, 84 kg.), Yosh Phull of Tamanawis Secondary (silver medal, 78 kg.) and Karan Basra of Enver Creek Secondary (bronze medal, 57 kg.).