Brock teams in U SPORTS dogfight; Keefe goes for gold
Brock’s Vanessa Keefe will wrestle for U SPORTS gold Saturday at Canada Games Park.
Brock’s Vanessa Keefe will be looking for her first U SPORTS gold medal Saturday at the 2025 Wrestling Canada Lutte U SPORTS Invitational Championships at Canada Games Park.
The 20-year-native of Prince Edward Island is a three-time Ontario University Athletics champion and won U SPORTS bronze in 2023 and silver in 2024.
The third-year kiniesiology major won all three of her 68-kilogram matches by technical superiority Friday to earn her berth in the finals.
“I am excited. I came third, I came second and I plan to win this year.”
She doesn’t think it’s a big advantage to wrestle at home.
“I know a lot of people like wrestling at home but for me I feel that I need to keep my edge because it is really easy to feel like you are just at practice.”
Keefe has had plenty of success away from Brock. At the international level, she placed second in 2024 at the junior Pan-Ams and fifth in 2023 at the under-23 worlds.
Keefe has a goal competing for Canada at the 2028 Olympics.
“I am pretty early in my career right now. Skill-wise, I am working up and I am going to keep getting better. I have been doing well the past three years and I’m excited for the upcoming nationals. I will have seniors, under-23s and I plan to do the non-Olympic trials this year as well.”
Last year, Keefe came second at senior nationals at 68 kilograms and won the junior title at that weight class.
She also likes the mental state of her game.
“I am having a lot of fun in practice and tournaments. If it’s not fun, then all it is hard work. There is a lot hard work and it’s important to have fun scrapping with your teammates instead of hating it.”
Having fellow PEI wrestler Hannah Taylor in the room wasn’t the reason why Keefe came to Brock.
“It was nice having familiar faces and stuff but I came here because of the reputation that Brock had.”
She had no expectations for what the Brock wrestling room would be like.
“I just kind of showed up here and I didn’t know what to think but I knew it was going to be intense and it has been intense.”
She feels she has made strides in her game in the past year.
“Overall, I am better and I have picked up some skills. My hand fighting is better, I’m more aggressive and like I said, the mental stuff has gotten better. It’s just having fun, being ready and knowing that you can have comebacks. People have been down 8-0 and still win and it happens a lot.”
Her motivation comes from everything.
“I have been wrestling for nine or 10 years and my oldest sister wrestled for Montreal for about 10 years. She was a high performance athlete as well so I knew I wanted to do this since I was 14. And I like it.”
Brock women’s wrestling coach Dave Collie calls Keefe The Beast From the East.
“She has had a great year. She has always been super-talented and she has really brought up her training this year — not that it wasn’t always good — but she’s looking good. Last year was a great year too.”
He is excited for what’s next for Keefe.
“She is going to go to the U23 Pan-Ams and there’s a lot ahead for her.”
Collie described the Brock women’s team’s performance Friday as typical as it looks to capture its 12th overall national championship and the 11th in the past 12 years.
“There were some big wins and some big losses. We had a loss in one of the matches we were winning and if we win that match we are wrestling for bronze. Because they lost it, they are wrestling for seventh. That always hurts but we did have a couple of really big, come-from-behind matches that we won and that put us in the finals in a couple of weight classes.”
Brock has a slight lead on the University of Calgary but it will be a battle until the end.
“They have a lot in the finals and we’ve got a lot in the finals,” Collie said.
Brock has six female wrestlers going for gold medals and one going for bronze.
“If Calgary has a great day tomorrow and we don’t, they will take the title. It is going to be exciting.”
The Brock men’s wrestling team finds itself in an unfamiliar position heading into the final day of the U SPORTS championships.
Looking for their 10th straight and 23rd overall crown, Brock trails the University of Alberta heading into the final day.
“I’m not scared of losing but I really like winning,” Brock men’s coach Marty Calder said after Friday’s action. “It wasn’t our best day and it wasn’t our worst. The thing is, it is going to take our best to win a national championship. We have a chance tomorrow to right the wrongs, make it better and finish off on a high.”
The men will have six wrestlers going for gold and two going for bronze.
“We are behind the U of A and we know it. It’s close enough that we know we can make up the difference but we have to have a good day tomorrow.”
