The decision to quit other sports and focus on wrestling appears to be paying off for Kamil Golowko.
The 16-year-old, Grade 11 Langley Secondary student became the first-ever male member of the Langley United Wrestling Club to find the podium at the B.C. high school wrestling championships.
All of the Langley schools wrestle under the Langley United banner and female members of the club have won a pair of silver medals at provincials over the year.
But until this year, the male contingent of the club has been denied the podium.
“It was definitely a nice achievement,” Golowko said.
“I set out a goal for myself this year and that was to get at least top three at provincials.”
The provincial championships were held at Abbotsford’s Ag-Rec Centre on Feb. 26-28 with seven members of the Langley United Wrestling Club competing in various weight classes.
Golowko was wrestling in the heavyweight (110-kg) division and won two of his three matches.
The medal was not much of a surprise considering he entered provincials after winning gold a few weeks earlier at the Fraser Valley championships.
He did admit to a slower start to the season, but said things have really picked up since Christmas.
This was also Golowko’s second straight appearance at the provincials, as he finished sixth as a Grade 10 student.
“Kamal is a kid that has steadily improved over the last couple of years, especially the last two,” said Langley United Wrestling Club coach Chris Rinke.
“His growth has been tremendous; he has gotten a lot stronger and fitter.
“He still has a ways to go, but we hope he can win a medal for us next year as well.”
Golowko has wrestled for five years and he has since quit both football and rugby.
“It was a combination of I enjoyed it the most, I showed potential, and I needed to focus on my school,” he explained. He is also involved with cadets.
Golowko hopes to wrestle at the university level, and potentially internationally.
Rinke said Golowko is both very coachable and a leader among the club.
“He is the kid that is in the gym every day, setting up the mats, making sure everyone else is helping out,” the coach said.
“A real leader in the room.”
And on the mat, Golowko shows great potential.
“He is a real strong guy (with) real good awareness of where he is on the mat and good balance,” Rinke said. “He gets out there and competes in the moment. He is good at wrestling to his ability — not everybody can do that.”
And for someone in the heavyweight division, Rinke said Golowko is among the better conditioned athletes for wrestlers that size.
“He’s got a pretty good gas tank,” the coach said.
While Golowko found the podium, another Langley United wrestler came up one spot short with Brookswood’s Trevor Weltzin placing fourth.
Weltzin was competing in the 70-kg weight class, which Rinke called the toughest among all the classes since there are more wrestlers in that group and they are also much-better conditioned.
Weltzin had won all four tournaments he entered but prior to the zone qualifying tournament, the Grade 11 student was sidelined by a knee injury.
Weltzin was permitted to enter provincials as an injury petition, but prior to the championships, he came down with the flu and lost some weight.
He still finished fourth in his weight class.
“Trevor had an outstanding year, definitely the top wrestler for us in a tough weight class,” Rinke said.
“He is our most committed athlete. He just wasn’t quite at the level he needed to be.”
“You have to be at the top of the game when it is competitive.”
Weltzin already has an impressive resume, as he won silver at the cadet/juvenile Canadian wrestling championships in 2014.
John Morrow/Black Press
Brookswood’s Liam Murray (below, left) battles with Hope’s Karam Shergill in the juvenile men’s 110-kg match during preliminary round action at the B.C. high school provincial wrestling championships. Golowko and Murray were among the seven wrestlers who represented the Langley United Wrestling Club.
