Twice in his wrestling career, Dylan Turmel has grappled to gold at the Western Canadian Age Class Championships. He'll be seeking a third title this weekend in Kamloops.
Turmel, a Grade 12 student at Kelly Road secondary, will compete in the 66-kilogram class at westerns. The gathering is an important one because it's also a seeding meet for the high school provincials, Feb. 24-26 in Coquitlam.
"I'm pretty confident," said Turmel, who won all three of his matches at the Kelly Road Invitational, held on Saturday. "Mostly my game is a lot of defence and conditioning. I won't be winded by the second and third rounds when everybody else is really tired. That's normally what I've got on most guys, and speed."
The age class nationals are also on Turmel's radar. Nationals, set for Windsor, Ont., in April, are open but athletes must still meet a certain standard to be included in the field.
At the Kelly Road tournament, Turmel started off with relatively easy victories against Karan Gill of PGSS and Tyler Frizzell of Prince Rupert. Both those wrestlers didn't bring the same level of experience to the mat as Turmel, who is in his seventh season. In his last match, Turmel took on Sam Palfrey of Quesnel's Correlieu secondary and won 5-0.
