First-ever national gold for Wrestling Club

Days after two Howard S. Billings/Kanien’kehá:ka Tehontatie:nas Mohawk Wrestling Club (MWC) wrestlers won gold at the 2026 U15-U17-U19 Canadian Wrestling Nationals in Grand Prairie, Alberta, it still felt difficult to believe for MWC coach Otiohkwanoron Montour.

“It’s really hard to describe the experience that we had over the weekend,” said Montour.

“It almost feels like a fever dream at this point. It was just incredible to have our athletes perform as well as they did and come back with the results that they achieved.”

Amarachi Ugochukwu won gold in the 61-KG women’s division, and Janelle Nwaiwu won in the 90-KG women’s division.

In all the years Montour and his father Peter have coached, whether it was at Kahnawake Survival School or for the MWC, a national gold medal has always been a dream, never a reality.

To achieve that not once, but twice, is an incredible feat for a program that brought just nine wrestlers to Nationals in a field of more than 900.

“We always have confidence in our athletes, that they know what they’re doing, that they’re going to go out there and wrestle their best. But for one of our athletes to achieve a national gold medal has been something that’s been eluding us for years, and now that it finally happened, it is mind-blowing. I’m not quite sure how else to describe it,” said Montour.

“Even when we gave the medals to our athletes, we were still almost in awe that this was happening.”

Three other members of their team had solid finishes: Sidney Hoshowatiuk finished fifth in the men’s 125-KG division, Reina Brewster finished sixth in the women’s 90-KG division, and Uchechi Ugochukwu finished sixth in the women’s 53-KG division. The women finished fifth overall as a team.

Any top finish is good when facing the kind of competition you see at Nationals, Montour explained.

“It’s always a stacked event. No matter which way you look at it, even if you have a small weight class, there are always noteworthy athletes there,” said Montour.

Part of their preparation for Nationals has been teaching their wrestlers to not be intimidated by who is facing them on the mat.

“It doesn’t matter who is across from you, there is always a chance you can win that match. I think everybody going into this tournament already had it in their mind that they are going there with the best to face off against the best in Canada,” said Montour.

The MWC’s performance at Nationals cap off a great year for the program. They won the Ed Meagher Sports Tournament at Loyola High School, the girls team placed first overall in the Greater Montreal Athletic Association regionals, and they won the U17 women’s division at provincials.

“What we’ve accomplished this year has been one mind-blowing event after another. I think this goes to show not only the monumental amount of growth from our athletes, it shows their dedication to the team and to the sport,” said Montour.

“But also, I think it goes to show the strength of our coaches as well, who show their dedication to these athletes, and it shows that these athletes are responding to the coaches in a very positive way, because otherwise we wouldn’t be growing as fast as we are.”

Kahnawa’kehró:non wrestler Grayden Diome, representing Tritton Performance, also medaled twice, with a silver and a bronze medal in the two 48-KG brackets he competed in - despite dealing with a serious illness.

“He’s dealing with a bad bronchitis infection, and you could tell he was a bit off of his game,” said Nick Tritton, owner of Tritton Performance and Grayden’s stepfather.

“Either way, to be top three in the country is great. We hold our standards very high at the facility, and we move onto the next event!”

Tritton Performance has added a regional training facility to its operations this year, with wrestlers as far as Kingston joining their program. It has also included Kahnawake Survival School wrestlers to its ranks.

“It will be great for the athletes from Kahnawake to continue outside of their high school team,” said Tritton.

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