When you have grown up balancing yourself on a four-inch wide beam and trying to dodge rugby tacklers, making the transition from the tumbling mat to the wrestling mat wasn’t all that tough for a Holy Trinity Academy Knight grappler.
Jenna Morrison qualified for the Alberta High School Wrestling Championship in her first year on the mat and is contemplating heading to nationals in Saskatoon with her fellow Okotoks wrestlers in April.
Morrison, a Grade 11 student at Holy Trinity Academy (HTA), finished with a 2-2 record in the female 61kg division at provincials in Edmonton March 8-9.
“I happy with how my year has gone — I was able to get third at rural provincials,” Morrison said. “I had no real expectations going into this year, so I feel things have gone well.”
Morrison was a member of the Mountain Shadows Gymnastics Club for 11 years before giving up the sport last May to focus on rugby and now wrestling.
Although gymnasts must have athleticism and poise of a balletist, it has similarities to the grunt sport
of wrestling.
“Comparing the two minutes of wrestling and the two minutes during a two-minute floor exercise, the wrestling is more tiring but they both take discipline,” Morrison said. “In gymnastics you know exactly what you are trying to do, in wrestling you have to picture it and set up what you are trying to do.”
She said without a doubt, her experience in gymnastics has helped her with her wresting.
“I find I am more flexible than the other girls I wrestle — I can kind of get out of some tight squeezes,” she said, adding she loved her time with Mountain Shadows.
Morrison will be trading in her singlet for the green-and-white jersey of the Holy Trinity Academy Knights rugby team in the spring.
With a year of wrestling under her belt it should help her with her tackling and her endurance on the rugby pitch.
In fact, it was while playing wing for the Knights last season Morrison was pitched the idea of coming out for wrestling.
“Abi dragged me into this,” she said with a laugh. “She kept bugging me and bugging me at rugby practice and I said I would come.”
Abi is Abi Watkins who won a silver medal at provincials in 57kg in Edmonton.
“I kept telling her to come out to wrestling — that she would be really good at it,” Watkins said. “She did really well. I think next year, with Jenna, myself and if we can get another girl to come out we (HTA) can win a banner.”
Morrison might even have had a better season if not for the fact Foothills Falcon Cassidy Barnert, a fellow member of the Okotoks Wrestling Club, also wrestled at 61kg.
For Morrison, it was like going out for the lead in the school musical and finding out Adel is going for the same spot. Barnert won her second consecutive provincial championship at 61kg.
Morrison said while it was humbling having to wrestle a provincial champion, she learned a lot by competing against Barnert in meets and practices.
Barnert beat Morrison at the rural provincial semifinal in High River on Feb. 23.
“Even though she goes to HTA, we are teammates,” Barnert said. “It was weird when we wrestled because she knew what I was doing and I know what she does…
“I thought I would have to meet her eventually because she is such a good wrestler.”
She added she is impressed with how good Morrison is after just one year.
“She is very athletic and caught on really good,” Barnert said. “I have never seen a first-year wrestler win as many matches as she has.”
Morrison does have one regret with her first year of wrestling — she wishes it wasn’t her first year.
“I do wish I started earlier because I would have known a lot more for this year,” she said.
