The tradition that is The Boot marks what is roughly the midway point of the high-school wrestling season in Sudbury.
The annual city wrestling tournament drew about 68 athletes — competing in 18 weight classes — to the mats at Sudbury Secondary School on Dec. 10.
With a gathering of athletes that represent a diverse mix of experienced grapplers and newcomers to the mat, it also provides an ideal time for a report card, of sorts, for those on hand.
Only weeks into her wrestling career, 17-year-old Cora Audette has enjoyed a meteoric rise, still undefeated in a sport she literally stumbled upon by accident.
"I went to go tryout for the volleyball team, and realized I don't like volleyball, so I stayed for wrestling," said the Grade 12 member of the Confederation Chargers.
She didn't even tell her family she'd joined the wrestling team.
"My family are all super athletic," she said. "Dad had done wrestling. I didn't tell him I was doing it until after my first tournament, when I told him that I won."
Audette is quick to credit her complete lack of knowledge of wrestling for much of her success to date.
"A lot of the time, when a coach tells you to do something, some people think that they know better, that they're going to try something else," she said. "I'm so new that everything that he says, I just instantly have to do it, because I don't know any other way."
A Grade 9 freshman at Macdonald-Cartier, 14-year-old Simon Laurin starting wrestling with the school's elementary program about a year and half ago, on the urging of schoolmate and friend, Manon Paquette.
Competing in the lightest of the weight classes (38 kg), Laurin has already developed a solid understanding of the key elements when it comes to starting to excel in the sport.
"I have to be fast," said Laurin. "If I'm too slow, they'll just get me down. Like when I go for leg shots, I don't get them fast enough some times, so they can just push my head down."
While he acknowledges the number of wrestling competitors is limited in Sudbury, and quite likely at NOSSA, the northern championships, there are bigger fish to fry on the horizon in 2016.
"At OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association), the wrestlers will be a lot better," said Laurin "My coaches are teaching me new moves, new techniques. I'm still pretty basic, so I have to start doing more advanced moves."
Cassidy Barrett of Sudbury Secondary can relate. Introduced to wrestling in Grade 10, and now in Grade 12, she acknowledged that progress was extremely gradual, at least in her case.
"For my whole first year, I never won a match," said Barrett. "There was only one other girl in my weight class, and she was just way better than me. Last year, I won my first match against a girl that I had never beaten before."
Thursday, in her home gymnasium, Barrett topped a grouping of five young ladies in capturing top spot in the 57.5 kg division.
"I've gotten stronger over the past few years," she said. "I noticed that the stronger opponents tended to dominate, so I started lifting weights and such. And then there is muscle memory, going to practices for a certain amount of time, you kind of figure things out."
Like Laurin, Barrett is also eyeing the all-Ontario championships as a barometer of success this year.
"I would really like to do well at OFSAA," she said. "I really want to compete, not just get destroyed."
With that in mind, there is a game plan in place.
"I have a very few moves that I am good at, and I stick to, but if I had a wider range, maybe I would be able to beat the people that are a little more experienced."
An all-star lineman in football, 17-year-old St. Benedict Grade 11 student Zach Corcoran knows that there is a great deal of cross-over between the two sports. Still, enjoying the same comfort level on the mat as he does on the field at James Jerome has not been something that necessarily happens overnight.
"I get too aggressive and don't always realize what they're going to do to me," said Corcoran with a smile. "Like on the crotch lift. I usually flip them, and then they pin me. I don't know how."
The good news is that Corcoran will have plenty of time, in practice, to try and work his way up the ladder in the 130 kg grouping.
Four of the five competitors who met in the round-robin format, for that division, on Thursday, are students at St. Benedict, including first place finisher, and fellow football all-star, Jackson Gutsch.
"He's used to all my moves, and he likes mind games," said Corcoran of his friend and fellow competitor. "You think that he's going for a certain move, and then he'll do something else."
Thankfully, Corcoran and all of the athletes on hand at Sudbury Secondary still have the entire second half of the season to prepare, with the Ron Preston SDSSAA Wrestling Championships not slated until February.
Following is a listing of the top two finishers at The Boot, in every weight class:
Boys Divisions
38 kg
1st - Simon Laurin (ESMC)
2nd - Shawn Gauthier (Lasalle)
51 kg
1st - Declan Eldridge (LOE)
2nd - Avery Kataquapit (Lasalle)
57 kg
1st - Andrew Paris (Lasalle)
2nd - Dakota Poitras (Lasalle)
61 kg
1st - Ryan McDougall (Lockerby)
2nd - Reily Maahs (Sby Secondary)
64 kg
1st - Zakary Frappier (Sacré-Coeur)
2nd - Riley Barbeau (Confederation)
67.5
1st - Ethan Draper (ESMC)
2nd - Emrick Fitzpatrick (Sby Secondary)
72 kg
1st - Eric Tessier (ESMC)
2nd - Matt Daigle (Lasalle)
77 kg
1st - Daniel Fleming (Lasalle)
2nd - Simon Marcotte-Yoo (CND)
83 kg
1st - Steven Sagle (ESMC)
2nd - Devin Neault (CND)
89 kg
1st - Quade Howald (Sacré-Coeur)
2nd - Justin Villeneuve (ESMC)
95 kg
1st - Kole Poitras-Paulin (Lasalle)
2nd - Noah Pollock (Sby Secondary)
130 kg
1st - Jackson Gutsch (St. Benedict)
2nd - Kyle Bradley (St. Benedict)
Girls Divisions
51 kg
1st - Manon Paquette (ESMC)
2nd - Tia Kontoniemi (Sby Secondary)
57.5 kg
1st - Cassidy Barrett (Sby Secondary)
2nd - Sheila Eshquib (Lasalle)
61 kg
1st - Cora Audette (Confederation)
2nd - Taylor Labelle (Sby Secondary)
72 kg
1st - Anyze Marsh (Confederation)
83 kg
1st - Zoe Mullin-Belanger (LOE)
2nd - Jasmine Tessier (ESMC)
115 kg
1st - Racha El-Darazi (Confederation)
2nd - Isabelle Minor (CND)
