Thunderwolves wrestling to send 12 to national championships

Lakehead’s wrestling team heads to Calgary late this week for the USPORTS national championships, with 12 Thunderwolves athletes making the trip. Nine wrestlers qualified through the OUA championships, and three more through a new wildcard process that fills each weight class into an eight-person bracket.

“It’s a good group we’ll be sending,” Thunderwolves wrestling coach Francis Clayton says.

The Thunderwolves will send:

Hasan Ercan (54kg), Marco Palermo (61kg), Abraham Mfonpa’re Ntienjem (68kg), Jesse Leach (72kg), Alexandre Richer (76kg) on the men’s side, and Madison Clayton (63kg), Erin Clayton (67kg), Ashley Gravelle (72kg), and Klara Patel, all of whom qualified through the OUA championships. Lakehead will also send Megan Smith (48kg), Maggie MacGillivray (59kg) and Myles Bellegarde at (120kg), all of whom qualified through the new wildcard process.

“We are sending a good mix of first, second, and third year wrestlers,” coach Clayton says. “One fourth year wrestler too. This will be a good group.”

The Thunderwolves squads will look to build off their success at the OUA championships, at which both the men’s and women’s squads were award bronze medals. Lakehead saw nine separate athletes finish in the top three in their weight classes—the athletes moving on to USPORTS in Calgary.

Weigh-ins will be held on Thursday, February 21st, with competition opening on Friday, February 20th.

Special note: the Thunderwolves wrestling squad will be taking over the @lakeheadtwolves Instagram account on Thursday and Friday, so make sure to follow along for a behind-the-scenes look at the first few days of the national championships.