Ambo fourth at Junior Canadian Wrestling Championships
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It's been a stellar year for Glendale HS wrestler Brayden Ambo.
An OFSAA gold medalist in Brampton (March 4-6) to finish his high school wrestling career, Ambo went straight into the 2014 Junior Canadian Wrestling Championships in Edmonton, March 21-23, and finished fourth at nationals in the 74 kg men's division, an ankle turn away from bronze.
The local 19-year-old wrestler was one of the lightest in his 18-20 year old weight class.
"It was so close from OFSAA to nationals – three weeks later – and I was right on 74 (kg)," said Ambo, who did not need to follow the traditional pattern of cutting pounds before weigh-in.
"In high school, people don't cut as much weight. But these guys, because the next weight class is 84 kg, some of these guys are cutting down from 83 and 84 to get to 74 kg. Some people are cutting a lot of weight... some guys (in 74 kg) are actually like huge."
His strategy did change to offset the weight differential, but he had to be strong mentally.
"Mentally you have to be more confident, knowing that you're good enough, strong enough to keep up with these guys even though they might be a little bigger."
He was okay with it, considering he was at his first junior nationals.
"I'll be wrestling this weight class next year and I'll be bigger and heavier."
Ambo made it to the semifinals in Edmonton, winning two matches before losing in the semis.
"That brought me over to the consolation side. Then I won the next match to go to the Bronze Medal match, which I lost."
The bronze medal was nearly in Ambo's hand. Trailing 9-0, his opponent took advantage of a strong hold and literally turned the tables.
"Superiority is 10-0, but he came back and beat me. I forget the score, but he ended up beating me by a lot. I just didn't score any points after that. So it was close to a medal, but..."
Looking back at it now, Ambo knows where he went wrong.
"I was trying really hard to get the last point... and I messed up. He got behind me, gained two, then he locked in an ankle turn and just kept turning me for points. So he caught up to me pretty quick once he had that..."
At that moment, said Ambo, the hold was so tight he knew there was nothing he could do.
Overall, fourth at his first Junior Nationals was a solid achievement.
"I thought I could do Top 6, but I didn't even place Top 6 at provincials. So I knew I could do good (at nationals), but I did better than I thought," Ambo smiled. "I was happy with the experience. I could have done a couple things better, but..."
Ambo will be attending Fanshawe College in the fall and will continue training with the London Western team.
"I can compete at basically all the same tournaments except OUAs. There's no wrestling in college, but I can wrestle with the London club, so it's basically the same thing. I'll be training with pretty much all the same guys, doing pretty much all the same tournaments."
After a great senior high school season (he was 33-0 leading up to WOSSAA), and five years in the Gemini wrestling program, Ambo is ready to take the next step.
"Yeah, it feels like it's time to go on," he smiled.