From Monday, March 6th to Wednesday, March 8th, student athletes from Sault Ste Marie, Ontario high schools headed to our nation’s capital for the 2023 Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations Wrestling Championships along with wrestlers from across the province of Ontario.

The St Mary’s Knights saw the McDonald sisters on the OFSAA podium with grade 12, Sienna McDonald taking home the bronze in the 115kg class while grade 10 wrestler Felisity McDonald brought home a sixth place finish in the 77kg class for the Knights. The Korah Colts also was a family affair with Hannah Ethier and Emily Ethier competing in the 51kg and 38kg classes respectively with Hannah finishing with a sixth placing along with sister Emily adding another sixth place finish for the Colts in Ottawa. The White Pines Wolverines had two female wrestlers on the podium on March 8th with Hannah Maluorno taking a sixth place in the 64kg class. Wolverine Nevaeh Pine would highlight Sault Ste Marie’s wrestlers with going undefeated and not surrendering a single point during the two day event in the nation’s capital to wrestler her way to a 2023 OFSAA gold medal in the 95kg class.

White Pines wrestling coach William Basawa told Saultsports that “Neveah had an amazing showing at OFSAA, especially for a young athlete in their first full year of wrestling. Neveah is consistently working on her craft at both high school and Algoma Club Wrestling. She would start off the experience with bang, pinning her first opponent within 30 seconds of the match. She would follow it up with a gutsy effort to tech her opponent 11-0. Her semi final match resulted in another explosive pin in a short amount of time.”

“During the Gold Medal match, Nevaeh would hold a 6-0 advantage heading into the second round but would cap her OFSAA experience off with one more pin with seconds left on the clock,” added Basawa.