Braydon Parsons has had a surprising year. It was his most successful year of wrestling to date, but it didn’t come without adversity. Parsons broke his hand and missed two and a half months, essentially the whole season before coming back and putting together a golden performance for his first Canadian national championship victory.
“This had probably been one of my most successful years,” said Parsons. “I didn’t expect to do very good at all this year.”
The Grade 12 Central Collegiate student came home a Canadian champion at the recent national wrestling championship Apr. 13-14 in Fredericton, N.B. Parsons claimed the gold medal in the juvenile men’s 66 kg weight class in the Greco-Roman division. He also placed fifth in the freestyle category.
Greco-Roman is a style of wrestling where holds below the waist are forbidden and there is an emphasis on throws, as opponents cannot attack the legs. Freestyle is the other method, where opponents can attack the lower half of the body to throw and pin the opponent to the mat.
The Greco-Roman style of wrestling is not as common in Saskatchewan and Parsons was only able to practice three times before competing in the national championship because of the injury.
“I’d say that I’m better at freestyle, but statistically I’m better at Greco,” stated Parsons. “I’ve been wrestling in freestyle since the age of four.”
Although his gold medal in the Greco style shocked Parsons, he was able to handle the competition quite quickly and cleanly, as no other competitor scored a point on him.
“In the finals I won 5-0 in the first round and then 8-0 in the second,” he said. “It was a pretty big stage…there was probably about 200 people in the crowd.”
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
