Six and counting for Brock’s wrestling teams
Brock men’s and women’s wrestling teams returned from the U SPORTS championships in Alberta with a matching set of sixpeats.
Brock’s men won their sixth straight crown comfortably by 25 points over runner-up Concordia while Brock’s women edged second-place Saskatchewan by five points.
“You don’t take any of them for granted,” said Brock head coach Marty Calder, who was named the U SPORTS male coach of the year. “Every year, we have different people in different roles and in different weight classes.
“I think we are able to maintain this because we don’t take it for granted whatsoever.”
Despite losing five men and two women from last year’s national championship squads, Brock was able to keep on keeping on.
“There was a lot of friggin’ points there,” Calder said, with a laugh. “A lot of them were finalists or they won, but it’s all part of the game.
“We are always trying to build our backups into starting roles.”
In doing that, the Badgers are always thinking one and two years down the road.
‘We are already talking potential lineups for next year and we’re recruiting athletes around that and developing the ones we have.”
When entering the U Sports championships, Calder never focuses on how many Brock has won in a row.
“The other teams may think we have won six and that’s what it says on the tally sheet, but this is a completely different team,” he said. “Losing seven athletes, I couldn’t be more proud of the team we have, how hard then worked and how committed they stay.”
Winning gold medals on the men’s side for Brock were Ligrit Sadiku (57 kilograms), Christopher McIssac (65 kilograms), Jevon Balfour (76 kilograms) and Ty Bridgewater (82 kilograms). It was Balfour’s fifth national university title, joining St. Catharines natives Ryan Weicker and Jamie Macari as the only athletes to achieve that feat.
“There’s not many people who have done five; a bunch of legends,” Balfour told the U SPORTS web site. “The coaching staff is ridiculous. They all put so much passion and care into us. If you care as much about it as they do, you can’t help but succeed.”
On the women’s side, Brock’s gold medalists included Emily Schaefer (55 kilograms), Hannah Taylor (59 kilograms) and Darrion Sterling (72 kilograms).
“It’s my last year with the varsity team, so it’s nice to end on a really positive note,” Schaefer told the U SPORTS web site. “I’m so proud of my girls, I love them to death.
“There are a lot of expectations and there is a lot of pressure, just depends on how you look at it. It was something we’ve done before so it gives us confidence we can do it again. We want that pressure.”
Looking at the locals on the Brock team, Governor Simcoe grad Tina McLaren lost the final when she received her third caution at the buzzer.
“It was one of those matches,” Calder said.
A.N. Myer grad Richard DesChatelets Jr. made it to the final but was in tough against Jordan Steen of Concordia.
“Steen is the No. 1 guy in the country,” Calder said, “Richard is 20 and the other kid is 28 or 29, or something like that. Richard continues to improve but it will take him some time to get to that level.”
Steen was competing in his final U Sports championships,
Below is the complete list of Brock results at the U Sports national championships:
MEN
54 kilograms: Garette Saunders lost by pin to Logan Sloan from Saskatchewan in the final to earn a silver medal.
57 kilograms: Ligrit Sadiku won the final 11-0 by technical superiority over Jordan Wong from Alberta.
61 kilograms: Joseph Martin won the bronze-medal match 17-7 by technical superiority over Brendan McKeage of Calgary.
65 kilograms: Christopher McIssac won the final by defeating Connor McNeice of Calgary 4-2.
68 kilograms: Roch Provost finished sixth after losing the fifth-place match 6-3 to Abraham Mfonpa`re Ntienjem of Lakehead.
72 kilograms: Cruiz Manning won the bronze-medal match 10-0 by technical superiority over Jesse Leach of Lakehead.
76 kilograms: Jevon Balfour defeated Benjamin Zahra of McMaster 10-0 by technical superiority in the final.
82 kilograms: Ty Bridgewater won the final by scoring the last point in a match that ended tied 12-12 versus Samuel Barmish from Concordia.
90 kilograms: Clayton Pye won the bronze-medal match 10-0 by technical superiority over Brad MaGarrey from McMaster.
100 kilograms: Richard DesChatelets Jr. won the silver medal after losing the final 11-0 by technical superiority to Jordan Steen of Concordia.
120 kilograms: Calvin Daum won the bronze-medal match by pin over Tyler Duguid from Alberta.
WOMEN
48 kilograms: Sarah Hein finished eighth.
51 kilograms: Tina McLaren won a silver medal after Jade Dufour of Concordia won the final by three-caution rule.
55 kilograms: Emily Schaefer won the final 9-2 over Tianna Kennet from Calgary.
59 kilograms: Hannah Taylor won the final 11-1 by technical superiority over Julie Steffler from Western.
63 kilograms: Daina Armstrong placed sixth after losing the fifth-place match 10-5 to Michalia Walls from Western.
67 kilograms: Skylar Grote won the bronze-medal match by pin over over Maddison Haney of Saskatchewan.
72 kilograms: Darrion Sterling won the final 9-2 over Berit Johnson from Saskatchewan.
82 kilograms: Shauna Keubeck placed fourth after losing the bronze-medal match by pin to Erin Geddie of Calgary.
