King's-Edgehill student wins national wrestling championship

A King’s-Edgehill student is the National Wrestling Champion in his weight class.

Riley Otto competed in the National Wrestling Championships in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the weekend of April 9 – 12. After placing fourth at last year's championship in Ontario, Riley bettered that effort by defeating his opponent from Edmonton in the final to become the 2008 National Champion at the Cadet 76 kilogram weight class.

His coach, Kim Walsh, accompanied him to Saskatchewan.

Riley started the competition with a win against his opponent from the Matmen club of Ontario, followed by a victory over another opponent from the Pile o’ Bones team of Ontario.

In the semi-finals, Riley drew a wrestler from the strong “Hargobind” club from the British Columbia mainland and won the first round in a close match after the BC wrestler was cautioned in a physical start to the match.

Riley took the third and deciding round after having to overcome some difficult calls from the officials in a closely contested match.

The championship match was against a very competitive wrestler from the Edmonton Wrestling Club. Riley won the first round by a score of 5-2 and followed that by a convincing second round 5-0 win. The championship match was well timed with Riley controlling his opponent with a combination of two-on-ones and shutting down his opponent's offence.

After winning his title, Riley also participated in the FILA trials that Sunday for the National age group team. He advanced to the finals against the national champion from the previous day's juvenile 76 kg championship -- the age group above Otto’s.

Otto lost this match after going the distance in the second round. This positions Otto as an alternate for the FILA Cadet-aged national team, a condition that makes him even more determined to secure a position on the national team next year in his last year of eligibility.

Back at School, Otto will be starting for the King’s-Edgehill School boys’ rugby team this year and is off to the Canadian Association of Independent Schools’ National Tournament at Upper Canada College, in Toronto this week. Ahead for him is a busy summer of training for the Canada Games wrestling team and participating in numerous wrestling camps in and out of the province.