Wrestling: MacGregor wins four NZ titles

Dunedin wrestler Shem Murdoch (top) is in command of his bout against Ben Ferris, also of Dunedin...
Dunedin wrestler Shem Murdoch (top) is in command of his bout against Ben Ferris, also of Dunedin, at the New Zealand wrestling and grappling championships at the Edgar Centre on Saturday. Photo by Linda Robertson.
Scott MacGregor proved to be the star once again at the New Zealand grappling and wrestling championships in Dunedin on Saturday.

The South Canterbury Olympic wrestling club representative picked up four national titles across four different styles.

MacGregor claimed gold in freestyle wrestling and Greco-Roman wrestling while he also showed his versatility with golds in ''gi'' submission grappling and no-gi (no jacket) submission grappling.

MacGregor also collected the King of the Mat title, after going undefeated in freestyle wrestling and no-gi submission grappling.

Host club organiser Geoff Todd was very impressed with MacGregor, particularly his ability to defend his the king of the mat title while collecting four golds.

''He was in big divisions, so he had a lot of matches on the day,'' Todd said.

Jess Todd was in control in the female division, winning titles in no-gi submission grappling and female wrestling, to earn her a second successive Queen of the Mat title.

Geoff Todd said the wrestlers appeared to have a slight advantage when crossing over to grappling events.

''The wrestlers seem to adapt to grappling reasonably well, but to date, not so many grapplers have changed over to the wrestling [successfully],'' he said.

''[Wrestling] is a good grounding sport. It's very explosive and requires a high level of fitness.

''In the UFC and MMA, a majority of their champions are from wrestling backgrounds.''

The Dunedin club had taken up the hosting of the championships at late notice from Auckland and Todd was pleased with how smoothly the event went.

''The Edgar Centre is such a great venue. There was not a problem all day.''

Saturday's event was the largest combined wrestling and grappling championships conducted in Dunedin, with more than 200 entries across all styles and divisions.

The standard of submission grappling was extremely high across all divisions, Todd said. Some divisions had more than 20 competitors. An elite South Island squad will be selected to train together as a team. Camps in Dunedin, Timaru and Christchurch are coming up.

 

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