It’s a long way to the top in Canadian wrestling, but Carson and Hunter Lee have both found a way to get there.
The brothers finished at the top of their respective categories at the Junior Canadian Wrestling Championships in Saskatoon on March 22-24, Carson took home gold in the 79-kilogram category, while Hunter took home the 86-kilogram glory.
Carson, a senior at Hapnot Collegiate who has committed to the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, defeated challengers Gurjot Gill and Adam Pacyga in his first two matches without conceding a point. In the finals against Alexandre Richer, a native of Thunder Bay committed to Lakehead University this fall, Lee earned a win via fall in less than two-and-a-half minutes.
Not to be outdone, Hunter, a 19-year-old sophomore with the same Huskies program that Carson has committed to next season, rolled over his category with ease. The 86-kilogram class was done in a round-robin style, with four competitors facing each other. In order to guarantee a victory, Hunter would have to beat all three other wrestlers.
In his first match against Tejvir Boal, an athlete with the Brock Badgers wrestling program in Ontario, Hunter walked out with a 10-0 win. Hunter did the same with challenger Karan Singh Dhillon in the second round, then beat Connor Pattison 11-0, winning his category by a combined score of 31-0.
Hunter also placed fourth in the Senior Canadian Championships, held concurrently with the junior event in Saskatoon, in the 86-kilogram classification. Hunter took down another Brock Badger in Clayton Pye before losing to Ahmed Shamiya in the semifinals.
Both brothers will represent Canada on the national junior wrestling team at international events this summer.
At the event, Carson also received his bronze medal from last summer's United World Wrestling (UWW) Cadet World Championship. Carson originally finished off the podium, but was bumped up to medal territory after Russian gold medallist Dmitrii Elkanov was disqualified after a positive drug test.
