Ursuline's Braydon Segeren wrestles to gold at Ontario high school championships

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Braydon Segeren was first on the mats and now he’s first in the history books.

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Ursuline's Braydon Segeren wrestles to gold at Ontario high school championships Back to video

The Grade 12 Ursuline student is believed to be the first OFSAA wrestling gold medallist from Chatham-Kent.

He reached the top of the podium by going 5-0 in the 64-kg division last week in Ottawa.

“I was so excited,” said Segeren, 17, of Blenheim. “It made me very happy.”

The past two seasons were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so this season was Segeren’s first since he was in Grade 9 in 2019-20.

“As soon as I went back on the mat and wrestled someone, I missed it like crazy,” he said. “It felt pretty good getting back on the mat.”

Ursuline is the only high school in Chatham-Kent with a wrestling team. The sport was absent from local schools for about 20 years until coach Chris Parent resurrected the Lancers program in the 2004-05 season.

Segeren is the Lancers’ third medallist since the program returned. Meagan Mulhern won antique bronze in 2013 and Kayla Smith won silver in 2020.

“Braydon has excellent body awareness and he has grit,” Parent said. “He is also very strong. These are some of the most crucial elements of being a good wrestler.”

Segeren qualified for SWOSSAA in Grade 9, but fell sick and didn’t compete. His sister Maddi had a 2-2 record at OFSAA that year.

He didn’t start this season with an eye on OFSAA.

“Originally my goal was just to make it to SWOSSAA,” he said. “Once I pretty much did really good in that, my goal was to at least get a better placing than my sister did in OFSAA. Turns out, I guess that happened.”

Now he has bragging rights in the family.

“Yeah, I do,” he said, laughing.

Maddi’s success got him into wrestling. So did his love of combat sports.

“I used to box and I used to do jujitsu and kick-boxing, but hockey got in the way of that and so did work,” said Segeren, who plays hockey for the South Kent under-18 C Lightning.

He began the OFSAA championship with two easy wins before pulling out a 10-9 victory in his third match.

“I felt a little bit off for that match, but I listened to my coach for the next match and did what he said,” Segeren said. “I felt a lot more clean and technical.”

That put him in the final against former Ontario champion Casey Harkley of Guelph John F. Ross. Segeren quickly scored three points, but then Harkley threw him down twice. With a minute left, Segeren went on the attack.

“I grabbed a hold of him when I had a chance and I threw him down, put him on his back and pinned him,” he said.

Segeren’s win helped Ursuline tie for sixth place in the boys’ team standings. Teammates Riley, Wesley and Alyssa Crummer and Morgan Kormendy also competed.