Keefe enjoys banner year
It has been one heckuva a year for Brock wrestler Vanessa Keefe.
The 19-year-old Brackley, P.E.I., native began an incredible run by winning the 69-kilogram Canada Games title last August in Niagara. She followed that up by winning an Ontario University Athletics gold medal and a U SPORTS bronze medal during the school year. On the national stage, she placed second at Canadian juniors and won both the Canadian senior 72-kilogram crown and under-23 68-kilogram title. She also won the under-23 world trials and will represent Canada at a yet-to-be-determined location at the end of October.
It will be her first time representing Canada at the world championships. She previously won the cadet trials but didn’t end up going to an international event.
She won thee matches to win the under-23 trials, including a 10-4 win over Katie Mulkay of the Edmonton Wrestling Club in the final.
Obviously, she was thrilled when she won the final match.
“I was excited because I didn’t feel super great before my match and I had never wrestled that girl before. I didn’t know how it was going to go but a couple seconds before it ended is when I knew it was over because I had her in a pin.”
Mixed with the excitement was relief.
“I didn’t know if I could do it, especially because I badly sprained my ankle two months before it. I was just getting back into it.”
She agrees it has been a crazy and successful 12 months for her on the mat.
“This is a group but the coaches really do a good job helping you with your individual needs and the certain things that you need to improve whether you are asking for help or they are pointing out something that you don’t even notice,” Keefe said. “It has been really great because they have helped me with a lot of things that I was doing wrong and didn’t realize it.”
The Brock wrestling room has been the perfect spot for her to work on improving her game.
“Brock wrestling is a little notorious and I knew about Marty (Calder) and Dave (Collie), everyone and all the coaches,” she said. “I hadn’t been up here on a recruitment trip or anything and I had three options but this was the top one. I just knew that I wanted to be here.”
The Brock experience has been more than she expected.
“I only ever trained in one place before and it is similar but it is different. I like the way that is different and it is really intense.”
She is heading to the under-23 worlds with no expectations.
“I am just ready to leave it all out there and if it’s only one match, I want to work hard in that one match in the six minutes that I have.”
It’s all about getting her feet wet again at the international level again after wrestling two matches this summer at the Spanish Grand Prix.
“Going to Spain, it was kind of small and it wasn’t even the biggest tournament I’ve been to but it also let me experience an international tournament and what it’s like competing against someone who has another flag beside their name instead of just their club.”
She will use that experience to help her at worlds.
“It gave me some confidence. I didn’t compete as well as I wanted and I didn’t place as well as I wanted to but I was in there. It was not like I got totally smashed. I was in the running and I did fine. Now I know I can do fine internationally and I’m ready to work. I think I can do well.”
She is looking forward to the coming season.
“I intend to make the (Brock OUA ) lineup again and I plan to win U SPORTS this year. I am going to work towards that and the same with juniors. I would like to be able to win this year. Last year was kind of an upset.”
