A pair of Guelph wrestlers are aiming for gold at the Pan-American Championships later this year.
But 19-year-old Nathan Hunyady and 16-year-old Casey Harkley, both of the Guelph Wrestling Club, went through their own struggle to get to their first international stage.
One had to overcome injuries, while the other ran a literal wrestling gauntlet over the span of 48 hours.
After getting pinned and losing in the OFSAA finals in Ottawa on March 8, Harkley, a Grade 11 student at John F. Ross, had to deal with that disappointment on the five-hour ride home, and needed to get over it quick.
The very next day, he was back on the mat at the cadet nationals in nearby Waterloo.
"I wasn't expecting much," he said after the two-day OFSAA tournament, and going through five matches. "I was pretty beat up, I was pretty tired."
But Harkley got through four matches, even crawling back from an early deficit in the final to get the decisive pin and the 65-kilogram championship.
"It was pretty exciting," he said. "Everybody was pretty excited, it was awesome."
He'll compete at the U17 Pan Ams in Mexico City June 22-25.
For Hunyady, a first-year marketing major at the University of Guelph and member of the Gryphons wrestling team, had an injury-plagued season, which kept him from competing at the OUA wrestling championships.
Once he realized the OUA wasn't going to happen, Hunyady put all his focus on the junior nationals.
"I wasn't really focused on winning it, I was focusing on wrestling my best and then the results would come," he said.
And the results did come, winning the junior national trials in the 65-kilogram weight class, qualifying for the U20 Pan Ams in Santiago, Chile July 6-9.
The key? He said he learned a lot this year about not giving up and keeping his mind in the right place.
"It feels really great," Hunyady said of moving on to the Pan Ams. "It's a great opportunity, especially being under my dad, who has coached me my whole life. He's gone multiple times so it's great to be able to carry on that tradition."
His dad, Zoltan, has been called arguably the greatest wrestler in the history of the Guelph Gryphons, a multiple time OUA and CIS (now U SPORTS) national champion, a 2004 Olympic team alternate, and now assistant coach with the wrestling team.
Zoltan said it's awesome to see his son win nationals and get as far as he has. Zoltan's message to his son – and all the other athletes he coaches – is to keep it simple.
"The most important thing is don't underestimate anybody," he said. "Just like football, any given Sunday, you can lose to somebody or you can beat somebody. So it's just doing what you do and go out there and do it."
Zoltan is one of many volunteer coaches under Guelph Wrestling Club head coach Doug Cox, who has quite a resume of his own.
"(Casey and Nathan) both had totally different years," said Cox, a two-time Olympian.
"They're both great kids, amazing, hard working kids in the room and good personalities. Especially Casey, he lights up the room, he's always joking around. Nathan, he's a little bit older, he's a little more serious but definitely both, two of the hardest working kids in the room for sure."
But as Cox explained, it takes a village to get this level of success, pointing to the efforts of coaches and volunteers.
"Everybody puts in a lot of time, and the truth is our program would not be near what it is if we didn't have (them)," he said. "Basically, these guys are volunteer coaches. It is that that's really making our program really good."
And with so much time spent together, Cox said the club is a tight circle and more of a family than anything else.
Now, the family gets to see two of their own head to the international stage, with a chance to add more hardware to the trophy case.
