Third-year wrestler Alexandria Town is the most decorated female wrestler in York history. This year she returned after a torn ACL wiped out last season and became the first York women's wrestler to earn U SPORTS all-Canadian honours.
 
Alexandria Town, a kinesiology and health sciences student, made York history at the U SPORTS championships last month.
 
The 59kg weight-class wrestler won a silver medal at national tournament, becoming the first female wrestler at York to accomplish this level of success in the wrestling program, which comes a year after a gruelling knee injury.
 
Town began wrestling in the 10^th grade. She was walking by her school's cafeteria and saw mats laid out on the cafeteria floor. She had had enough practice wrestling her brothers and decided to officially give the sport a try.
 
Although Town was a good wrestler, as she puts it, she was really skinny at the time and often got tossed around. She would always qualify for OFSAA, but she was never able to make it to the podium.
 
In her first year at York, she went to one of the wrestling practices late in the season. She felt out of shape compared to the other wrestlers and didn't return until the following year during Try-It Night, an evening where students were encouraged to explore the various sports and recreation opportunities offered on campus.
 
Town came out to the wrestling drop-in in her skinny jeans. The wrestling coach remembered her. This time, she made the team.
 
She was at her physical peak. She was much stronger, gained muscle and filled out her frame. This was in part due to the good coaching she received.
 
In her second year, Town was commuting from Scarborough, taking a 30-credit course load, and was the Outreach Director for Stong College. It was stressful, and she had trouble managing her schedule.
 
The following year, for her second year with the wrestling team, Town knew she had re-evaluate her priorities in order to focus on the sport. She dropped her course load, stepped down from some of her extra-curricular involvements and was no longer commuting.  
 
During the 2016-17 season, Town had great expectations for herself. However, days before the annual York Open meet, she was playing an intramural Tier I football game, was running towards the end zone, heard an unsettling noise and still managed to catch the ball. Immediately, she knew something was wrong.
 
She soon went to the York's Sport Injury Clinic and learned that she tore her ACL and had meniscus damage, amongst other injuries to her knee.
 
Town was angry at herself. This was supposed to be her best season yet, she thought. For the following two days, she cried.
 
The therapists at York helped her rehabilitate. For the following month, Town was in the clinic Monday through Friday for four hours a day and subsequently followed a strict rehabilitation program. Just under one year later, she had her first meet of the year at the end of October. There were three matches and she won all three of them.
 
She then returned to the clinic to thank everyone for their help.
 
Town realizes that there are a lot of people invested in her success: from friends, to family and members of the York Lions community. This year at the U SPORTS championships at Algoma University, Town brought home the silver medal in her weight class.
 
She has dreams to compete in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. She is focused on wrestling and is determined to be successful at her sport.