For three years in a row Kelsey Raab has won a gold medal at a provincial wrestling championship. She has won gold medals for the last three years in both the rural provincials and the open provincials. Raab believes no one else has done the same in freestyle wrestling in Alberta.
She competed in high school provincials in Edmonton March 8 and 9 and pinned all four of her competitors. “I was nervous but it wasn’t so bad.”
Her biggest concern was to perform well amid the competition.
“Everyone’s gunning for me at this level,” she added. “You kind of have a target on your back.”
The goal of a wrestler is to earn points during the best of three rounds unless they pin their opponents. If a wrestler pins their opponent then they win that match and Raab was able to pin one contestant in under 30 seconds. The finals match offered the most challenge but Raab was able to shift her weight to win. “The last one I got a good catch… Her weight was off.”
One concern is not to be overconfident and she used that as a tool to keep her focus throughout the tournament.
Last year Raab won the wrestling banner for her school as a one-person team and was a mere two points away from this year’s banner. One more person on the team and Raab would have earned the banner.
A training regimen of five or six days a week for almost three hours each time continues as Raab is preparing for a new level of competition. She is heading to junior/senior nationals, is the college level of competition, on March 19 in Fredericton N.B. and then to cadet juvenile nationals in Saskatoon, Sask. April 3.