Swift Current’s Aleah Nickel was back on top of the national podium on Saturday as she
won all four of her matches to win the five-wrestler Senior Women’s 65 KG Division at the 2022 Canadian Wrestling Trials at the University of Alberta Universiade Pavilion in Edmonton.
She won her first three matches by fall, beginning with a 59-second win over Jade Trolland of the Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club. Nickel followed up with a 24-second win over Mansi Astana. She added a win over MWC – NTC’s Amanda Savard in 3:42. Nickel closed out the national title with a 10-0 technical fall victory over Dinos Wrestling Club’s Angelina-Toddington.
“It felt really good,” said Nickel from Edmonton, where she wrestles for the University of Alberta Pandas. “It’s been a long season with a lot of unknowns. Knowing that it was at home and that I would have a home base crowd and a lot support behind me as I went into it, it was helpful. It was just nice to know that Nationals was actually happening.”
Nickel previously won a pair of national titles at the Juvenile level, but her career has been slowed the previous two seasons by injury and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Initially it was a mental battle because I hadn’t had a competition in two months. We started training a year ago for this. Initially it was pushed back from March until May, so we just weren’t expecting to go in. Mentally it was a battle, but physically, on the mat, I felt good, I felt as though I was moving well. The day just went how I wanted it to and how I needed it to.”
Read the complete story in this week’s edition of the Southwest Booster.
