SAULT STE. MARIE – It's a relatively new program, but the Algoma University's wrestling team is making national headlines.
In its seventh year of existence, the team of 10 wrestlers has just been ranked the highest it has ever been in the country.
"It's not common to have 50 per cent of your team ranked in the top five in the country," said Head Coach Trevor Manchester.
With such a strong showing with half of the team ranked in the top five, the men's team has cracked the top 10 in the country.
"We're currently ranked seventh in the country. Where the highest ranking we've had before was one week last year… ranked 10th," continued Manchester.
Leading the way is American Bryce Davis, currently ranked first in the country. This year he says he's on a mission.
"That's my goal… to be ranked number one. I took bronze a couple of years ago and I got injured at nationals last year so this year, the goal is to come out on top and be number one," said Davis.
Kyle Price is from Timmins and he's ranked fourth in Canada. He previously wrestled at Concordia but says the small school atmosphere that Algoma offers is better for him.
"I like the atmosphere here a lot more and there you have a room of like 50 people. Here, we're eight competitive people and it's always us with four coaches as well, so there's a lot of one on one for technique and just trying to improve," he explained.
Emily Duschene was a highly sought after recruit who decided to stay home and wrestle in her hometown.
She says she "just wanted to be able to wrestle with the coach that I already knew really well. Trevor has been my coach since grade nine, so having a coach that I'm familiar with how he wrestles… our styles are a lot alike from him coaching me for so long."
Duschene, ranked fourth in the country, says she was surprised to be ranked so high in her first year but says it's a big confidence boost heading into the second half of the year.
