(Strathcona County, AB) – On the first day of the Canadian Wrestling Team Trials in Strathcona County, Alberta, with the opportunity to represent at international qualifying events, qualify their weight class and be nominated to compete for Canada at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio all on the line, the Friday competition saw 50 matches wrestled.

With a large crowd in attendance, which included a morning schools program providing the opportunity for local children to see the best wrestlers in Canada, the pool and start of the ladder tournament featured some strong matches, but an opportunity to set the stage for the stronger matches to come.

“The atmosphere was really great for the first day, and the crowd were excited to see the best in Canada,” said Wrestling Canada Lutte President Don Ryan. “These athletes know there is a lot on the line and are looking to come out strong and send a message. The fans are in for some great matches.”

Among those moving on to compete on Saturday against national team alternates are Cleo Ncube (74 kg) from the Montreal YMHA club, who placed 5th at the Senior World Championships  (70 kg), 2014 Commonwealth Games and University World Champion Danielle Lappage (63KG) out of the Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club, and fellow Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club and Oregon State wrestler and 2014 Junior World Champion Amar Dhesi (125KG).

Tomorrow the event will feature a clinic for local club wrestlers followed by ladder tournament competition featuring the 3^rd vs 2^nd within the weight classes, opening ceremonies, and then the ladder tournament winners moving on to compete against the current national champions at 4 PM. The Saturday Millennium Place event will feature the first matches for Genevieve Morrison, the recent 2015 World Bronze Medalist who qualified her weight-class for the 2016 Olympics and Braxton Stone-Papadopoulos, a 2015 Pan Am Games Champion who also qualified her weight-class (63 KG) for the Olympics by winning her quarter-final match at the 2015 Vegas Worlds.

For complete schedules and results visit: https://wrestling.ca/teams/canadian-wrestling-team-trials. To subscribe to the live webcast visit http://sportscanada.tv/wrestlingcanada/. In addition to the webcast stream, live tweets (https://twitter.com/WrestlingCanada), photos, Facebook posts (https://www.facebook.com/WrestlingCanada) and updates can be linked to at https://wrestling.ca. For those able to attend the event, individual tickets are still available on site.