Moose Jaw’s Taylor Follensbee won her opening match but was unable to get past reigning Olympic gold medalist Erica Wiebe at the Canadian Wrestling Trials in Niagara Falls, Ont. on Friday afternoon.
Follensbee – now training with and competing for the Saskatoon Wrestling Club in the women’s 76-kilogram division – opened with a 9-4 decision win over Dejah Slater of Toronto-based Team Impact and drew Calgary’s Wiebe in the semifinal.
There, Wiebe hit a takedown in the opening 10 seconds, grabbed an ankle lace and rolled to exposure three times to take a 10-0 technical fall victory.
It was the second win by superiority for Wiebe in the tournament as she defeated Shauna Kuebeck of the Brock Wrestling Club by technical fall 10-0 in her opening match.
Wiebe will now face reigning Pan Am Games gold medalist Justine Di Stasio in one of the most anticipated matches of the event for the right to advance to the Pan American qualifier, with the finalists there advancing to Tokyo 2020 July 24 to Aug. 9.
Follensbee will look to close out the Trials with a victory when she faces Kuebeck in the third-place match on Saturday.
