Amar Dhesi of Burnaby Central won a fifth medal and fourth provincial gold in his five-year B.C. high school wrestling career.
The 17-year-old super heavyweight, who has been offered a full-ride athletic scholarship to Oregon State University, won his fourth consecutive gold medal at the provincials in Duncan, outpointing runner-up Juma Nathani of John Oliver 6-0, 6-0 in the two-round championship 110-plus kilogram boys' final on Saturday.
"He was basically just trying to get a workout in - he won easily. He's head over heels above everybody," said Central head coach Gianni Buono.
Only two other Burnaby wrestlers made it to a provincial final.
Darth Capellan of St. Thomas More placed second behind Dave Sharma of MEI in the 54kg final, while former provincial and national cadet champion Melvin Arciaga of Burnaby South was upset by the tournament's most outstanding wrestler Amrit Benning of W.J. Mouat in the 60kg final.
STM tied for the aggregate team title with Alberni District, both with 77 total points, but lost the banner on a tiebreaker based on the number of individual champions from each team.
A provincial banner would have been the first aggregate title in the program's history.
The STM Knights placed five girls in the semifinals, but came away with only three medals - all bronze.
The Knight girls' team finished fifth overall, following another tiebreak after a three-way tie with Carson Graham and Port Moody, all with 33 points.
The boys' team placed third overall with 44 points.
"At the end of the day, it's still a good result. But we could have won," said STM coach Doug Corbett. "Having two teams in the top five - a lot of teams would have liked to have been in our boat."
Anna Benevoli won a bronze in the girls' 69kg division, while STM teammates Nicole Depa and Karah Bulaqui were also third at 57 and 40kg, respectively.
Meagan Chow, at 43kg, and last year's Western Canada age class and provincial champion, Clarisse Dos Santos, at 47kg, both finished in fourth place. Ivana Baker and Dayna Harlos also found a spot on the podium in fifth place for STM.
Central's Sara Brnkac was also fifth at 43kg.
"(Sara) wrestled well in a competitive weight class," said Buono. "She wrestled really determined
and really tough in a lot of close matches. She was determined to wrestle well, and I think she did that."
STM also picked up third-place medals from Daniel Alphonso, at 38kg, and Massimo Pozzolo at 63kg in the boys' division.
South had a disappointing final, placing in the boys' division with four other wrestlers finishing in the top six.
"If we had a few squeak into the semis, we could have been up there," said South coach Danny Einhorn. "I thought we should have been in the top 10."
Jimmy Sidhu did well at 84kg, placing behind New Westminster bronze medallist Jordan Chin.
Gagan Sohol was fifth at 110kg, while South classmates Safi Shar and Abdullah Saib both came sixth in their respective weight classes.
Burnaby Mountain's Kevin Joyal-Hutchings made his school proud, winning a bronze medal at 110kg.
Also making the semi-finals were Eric Bauer of STM at 70kg, and New West wrestlers Kaeden Hnatiw and T.J. Cordoviz.
STM's Colby Lantz, Joshua Juni and Rafal Posypanko, and New West's Billy Collins all placed in the top six.
