The Cochrane Cowboys sent 44 athletes to the Alberta Open Wrestling Championships on Mar. 3-4 in Calgary and came home with vehicles weighed down with medals to help them tread through the snow.

The wrestlers earned 15 gold medals, 13 silver and nine bronze from what is the biggest competition of the year for most team members. In addition, both the Cowboys Novice and Bantam male and female teams topped their respective team standings, while in the Kids division the female team was number one and the junior male team placed third.

Some of the younger Cochrane Cowboys wrestlers gather to display their medals.

"It's a nice testament to the efforts the kids and the coaches have put into development," says Coach Frank Dostaler. "It's the last tournament of the year for all the elementary kids and all the junior high kids as well. They get to test themselves after going through a complete season and we get to see how far they've come along."

"Almost all of them performed to all of our expectations and some even exceed our expectations, which is exactly what you want. By the end of the season, you want them all peaking and being more skilled and in better condition than they have at any point prior to that, barring injuries. So I was very happy with how all the kids did. We had some great performances."

For the Junior male team to place third is quite a feat, given the Cowboys had only three wrestlers competing and all were entering the ring at a higher level than their age category dictates. Plus, if you counted the gold medal of Cowboy alumni Charles Cook, who wrestled for the Jr. Dinos, the Cowboys would have placed second.

"We let them wrestle up there," explains Dostaler. "They're strong enough wrestlers that we want them to be challenged, so we let them move up an age category."

"The reality is those guys go to Calgary at least twice a week to train with the U of C Varsity team. The guys that they are wrestling at that tournament in the older age group are the same guys they're going to in the varsity room half the time."

The Alberta Open itself continues to grow in popularity. The last time Cochrane hosted the event there were 500 entries and this year over 700 had expressed interest in attending, though the poor weather prevented several from travelling to Calgary.

Cowboy wrestler Autumn Shopa, who recently moved from Swift Current, SK., made history in the first ever provincial girls Greco-Roman matches ever in Alberta, winning gold. (Courtesy of Cochrane Cowboys)"The event is becoming really big. The nice thing about this event is it's open to everyone. We've had wrestlers in their 60s come out to wrestle. We have varsity kids no longer in university who have moved on with their careers that come back to wrestle. So there are elementary kids, high school kids, right up to mature men and women coming out to wrestle. All-in-all, it's good all around event."

The Cowboys are growing as more youth take up the sport. For the coaches, it's a thrill to watch them develop their skills. 

"We watch these little kids come in and you find these kids with passion and natural athleticism and a physical literacy that is just so well suited for wrestling. You think to yourself, this kid is going to be a really talented wrestler if they stick with it."

Up next is the high school wrestling provincials being hosted by Medicine Hat, Mar. 9-10, followed by the nationals.

Alberta Open medallists from the Cowboys were:

Gold: Julianne Christie; Austyn LaBelle, Rylan Myers, Nolan Maguire, Massimo Piattelli, Zoe Cook, Grace Toner, Noah Sharkey, Jaityn LaBelle, Catherine Swedlo, Brendan Maguire, Elijah Springer, Isaiah Springer, Autumn Shopa (U17 Greco) and Tyler Weninger (U19 Greco).

Silver: Kayel LaBelle, Levi Davis, Rowan McGregor, George Sheldon, Riley Boynton, Clara Washburn, Hunter Carr, Annika Fines, Danyka LaBelle, Nicholas Hooper, Eli Fines, Caitlyn Roode and Conner Pointen, 

Bronze: Kate Sharkey, Beckham Carr, Aaron Swedlo, Zoe Adam, Autumn Carr, Ben Sharkey, Naomi Cook, Conner Pointen and Tyler Weninger.