Seventh heaven for Brock men
The Brock men’s wrestling team won its seventh straight U SPORTS championship Saturday at Brock. STEPHEN LEITHWOOD photo.
Led by gold medals from Ligrit Sadiku, Cruiz Manning and Clayton Pye Saturday at Brock, the Brock men’s wrestling team rolled to its seventh straight U SPORTS men’s wrestling championship.
Brock head coach Marty Calder enjoyed the day, but was already looking ahead to 2021.
“Sometimes I am sitting in the corner and thinking how are we going to fix this for next year. It’s a sickness, I guess,” he said, with a laugh. “I am thinking we have to recruit someone here when this person is gone and we have to do something with this person here.
“But all in all, it was a great weekend for our program.”
PYE ENDS ON HIGH
Clayton Pye concluded his Brock University wrestling career Saturday at Brock with a gold-medal performance in the 100-kilogram division.
The 24-year-old native of Ingersoll won the final 11-0 by technical superiority with 1:21 left in the first round against Fraser Valley’s Jasonpreet Bains.
It was the second U SPORTS gold medal for Pye to go with two bronze and one silver medal.
“It was nice to end my varsity journey in the same place it started,” he said. “This time five years ago, we had my first U SPORTS here and I won bronze. It was great to do it at home in front of all my fans.”
Pye’s focus on the U SPORTS championship was obviously distracted by what lies ahead in his wrestling career. He won the 86-kilogram division at last December’s Olympic trials to qualify for the Senior Pan-Am Championships March 6-8 followed by the 2020 Pan-American Olympic Qualification Tournament March 13-15. Both events are in Ottawa and the second one has a spot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics up for grabs.
“I only started treating this like a big thing about a week before it because in the back of mind I was thinking that I have to win Pan-Ams at the end of March,” he said. “That’s where all my focus was so until U SPORTS came around, I wasn’t worried about it too much.”
He was certainly focused on it when this weekend rolled around.
“When you start thinking about it, what a great title it is and how much it means to everybody, you can help but think about it.”
Pye has the option of skipping the Pan-Am championships, but will take part in the first event.
“It’s to get some international experience and the championship is also a ranking tournament for the Olympic qualifiers.” he said. “It would put me on the side of the draw where I might have some easier matches to get to the finals. It gives me a better chance to come out on top.”
His victory at the Olympic trials was the biggest achievement of his career and he’s hoping for more of the same in March.
“I want to break through again and keep it going,” he said. “It’s an opportunity that only comes around every four years and I am going to give it everything I’ve got.”
SADIKU NOT SATISFIED
In the aftermath of a narrow 14-12 victory over Calgary’s Emmanuel Olapade in the 65-kilogram gold-medal match, Sadiku wasn’t pleased with himself.
“It doesn’t mean too much but it means a lot to see that it was a close match and I was challenged,” the 23-year-old native of Summerside, P.E.I., said. “I was glad that happened because sometimes just winning isn’t enough. You want to learn from your matches and now I can pick myself up from that and learn even though I won.
“I am not happy with it. It is basically a loss to me.”
Sadiku, wrestling up a weight class, led 8-1 and 13-6 before hanging on to the narrow victory.
“I know my coaches are going to say I should have been more offensive because every time I was offensive I scored. I had a 100 per cent attack rate. Every time I attacked, I scored,” he said. “I let off the gas a bit and he took advantage of that. He came at me because he knew he had some size on me and he did a good job.”
The winner of the 57-kilogram division at last December’s Olympic trials can use the bout to his advantage.
“My ultimate goal is to go to the Olympics and this is just a stepping stone for that. I expected to win and it was closer than expected,” he said. “Winning doesn’t mean too much to me but it is definitely helping my career toward the Olympics.”
Like Pye, his focus was split as he prepared for two events, but it actually helped him.
“It has kind of been nice because I know some of my teammates were really stressed because it was the biggest tournament of their lives,” he said. “But for me, it was just another tournament to prepare me for the Olympic qualifiers.
“It’s nice tapering, doing a tournament and tapering again. I feel less burned out for the upcoming Pan-Ams.”
Sadiku won U SPORTS bronze his first year at Western and then he reeled off three straight U SPORTS gold medals as a member of the Brock team.
“It was a pretty amazing feeling and it still is an amazing feeling,” he said. “Whether it was a good match or not, it was nice to win with my teammates and I could hear the crowd cheering for me and supporting me. That goes a long way to helping me, especially in close matches like that.”
Sadiku has another year of eligibility and may return for a fifth season as a varsity athlete.
“I will see how it goes but I am definitely going to stay in St. Catharines and train at Brock.”
CRUIZING TO VICTORY
Cruiz Manning lived up to his name, cruising to a victory over McMaster’s Connor Quinton Saturday in the 68-kilogram final.
Manning led 4-0 after the first round and won the match in the second round by technical superiority after building an 11-0 advantage.
It was the second U SPORTS title of Manning’s career to go with a silver and a bronze in 2019.
“Last year, it felt like it was stolen from me,” he said. “The guy came out with a really good game plan and he beat me on the first day. I ended up getting third.”
Manning came into the year looking for redemption.
“It feels great,” he said. “I was really upset last year when I lost and it surprised me. To come back and win the gold really means a lot.”
He was anything but overconfident heading into the final.
“I was so nervous before the match and I was scared,” he said. “I just wanted to get the gold and I didn’t want to mess up on this stage at home.”
Manning competed his first three years at Brock at 72 kilograms but went down a weight class to help his team out. So many of his teammates did the exact same thing, either going up or down a weight class.
“I think it’s because we see that we all train so hard and we want to succeed as a team,” he said. “If there is something we can do to help the team succeed then we will definitely do it, no questions.”
Going down a weight class wasn’t difficult for Manning because he competes at 65 kilograms for the Canadian team qualifiers and national championships.
Manning is done wrestling as a member of Brock University but plans to stick around and continue to train with the Brock Wrestling Club.
At 29, he is one of the oldest athletes in the Brock wrestling room.
“It’s pretty hard keeping up with these young guys,” he said, with a smile.
The former Canadian junior champion trained in Guelph for a number of years before deciding to attend Brock.
“I had a lot of success there, but when I was ready to go to school I made my way out here.”
MORE MEDALS
Winning silver medals for Brock were Richard DeChatelets Jr. (120 kilograms) and Garette Saunders (57 kilograms). Bronze medals were mined by Joseph Martin (54 kilograms), Ty Bridgwater (76 kilograms) and Ignatius Pitt (90 kilograms), and Qasim Khan was fourth at 54 kilograms.
