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Sabres trio win gold

Octavio Villena named Outstanding Wrestler
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Jakub Rainbow of Guildford Park grabs the leg of an opponent during SlamFest.

Three gold medalists lifted the Guildford Park Sabres with a third place finish at the Fraser Valley high school wrestling championships last weekend in Maple Ridge, giving the Surrey school confidence it can repeat a runner-up finish at the B.C. championships Feb. 24-26 in Abbotsford.

“The Fraser Valley zone is the toughest in the province,” said Sabres coach Mark McRae. “Last year we were third in our zone, but we were able to get second at provincials.”

The W.J. Mouat Hawks won the Fraser Valley title, earning 79 points, one better than the Rick Hansen Hurricanes. The Sabres collected 69 points.

Leading the way for Guildford Park were Octavio Villena in the 54 kg. weight class, Isaac Bernard in the 60 kg. group, and Jallab Maki at 66 kg., all of whom won gold medals.

“I was very pleased with some of the results, most notably Octavio, who was named Outstanding Wrestler,” said McRae. “He beat Amrit Sund, who is a two-time B.C. champion and last year’s national champion.”

Adam Maki won a silver medal in the 66 kg. group, while first-year wrestler Matthew Henderson earned a bronze at 45 kg.

Four female wrestlers also earned medals, helping Guildford Park to a seventh place finish in the team standings. Gold medalists were Andrea Miteva at 47 kg., Joy Lee at 51 kg. and Sandra Livingstone at 54 kg. Alejandra Bolanos won bronze at 54 kg.

n Guildford Park hosted the annual SlamFest tournament Feb. 9, winning gold medals in eight of the 16 male weight classes.

Placing first in their weight groups were Henderson (45 kg.), Villena (54 kg.), Lawrence Kasseberi (57 kg.), Bernard (60 kg.), Adam Maki (70 kg.), Maxwell Livingstone (74 kg.), Jallab Maki (78 kg.) and Jonathan Esparza (90 kg.).

Other gold medalists were Logan Smith (38 kg.) and Brian Houghton (66 kg.) of Earl Marriott , Kyle Mondor (41 kg.) and Quy Pham (51 kg.) of Frank Hurt, Chris Peterson (48 kg.) and Usmar Khan (130 kg.) of Queen Elizabeth, and Tyler Dillman (63 kg.) and Brad Hildebrandt of Lord Tweedsmuir.

Girls champions were Jessie Nickoriuk (69 kg.) of Frank Hurt, Kandee Samra (75 kg.) of Queen Elizabeth, and Guildford Park wrestlers Lee (54 kg.), Livingstone (60 kg.) Tekanabo Tamuno (90 kg.).