Lakehead Thunderwolves

Two of Lakehead University’s brightest student athletes are being recognized with RBC Athlete of the Month honours.

Second‑year Nature-Based Therapy student Haley Florell won a silver medal at the national wrestling championships hosted at Lakehead last weekend. She competed in the women’s 76‑kg division, the same category in which she won gold last year.

She said the energy from the home crowd at Lakehead was incredible.

“(Competing in front of a home crowd) definitely came with a different level of pressure,” Florell said. “For me personally, coming from a small town, I’ve never competed in front of a home crowd ever. I thought I was going to be a lot more nervous about it, especially with everyone asking questions and getting excited for me, but really it just added to it and I got to give a little bit of a show.”

Florell says she has struggled with nerves in the last two years, but she’s developed pre-match routines to keep herself centered.

“Usually the night before or the morning of, I’ll write down everything I know about myself in ‘I am’ statements. I am strong. I am balanced. I am confident. I do breath work just to really feel myself in my body and be present in the moment. And then, of course, for my warm-ups I also dance around. Just as a reminder to have fun with it,” she said.

Her advice to young wrestlers is to let loose.

“Don’t be scared of failure and embarrassment in trying things for the first time. You’re going to fail. Just have fun with it. Find the joy in what you do, and others will be gravitated towards that. People will want to hop on that ride with you.”

Third year nursing student Stephen Hudec broke the school’s record in the 200m on Valentine’s Day.

Hudec ran the 200m in 21.99 seconds at the David Hemery Valentine’s Invitational at Boston University.

He said the first thing that crossed his mind when he finished was how he could have improved.

“I thought I could have been a bit more relaxed in my upper body before I came through,” Hudec said. “I could have had a slightly better time. (Laughs). I shouldn’t think that way (…) I’m still happy with it either way.”

Hudec has a tightly regimented training schedule to improve form and speed.

“The most important part is really every single day that you train, you should be thinking, ‘What am I focusing on today?’ What am I really trying to improve?’ so you’re not just going through the motions, but you’re consciously thinking about what you’re doing in training,” he said.

Hudec’s advice for young athletes is not to lose sight of their goals even if they feel improvement has stagnated.

“Even if it feels like you’re not improving, you’re always improving in one way or another,” Hudec said. “Hard work always leads to results.”