DesChatelets in amongst the heavyweights
Richard DesChatelets Jr. has no problem wrestling up a weight class for the Brock University men’s wrestling team.
“I do what the team needs me to do,” the 21-year-old Niagara Falls native said. “Obviously, I would rather be at my weight class because it is really hard on your body going up a weight class.”
DesChatelets, who usually wrestles at 100 kilograms, will be competing at this week’s U SPORTS championships at Brock at 120 kilograms.
“I find that it is really taxing on my neck, but the team needs me to do it and I am going to step up and do it for this team because I love this team.”
The 2020 Ontario University Athletics 120-kilogram champion is no stranger to mixing it up with the big boys. In 2018, he came second in the 120-kilogram division at the U SPORTS championships before taking silver in the 100-kilogram event in 2019.
Wresting at 120 kilograms requires DesChatelets to make a number of adjustments.
“Most of the guys are a lot bigger than I am so I can’t try and beat them with strength and I can’t get stuck underneath them,” he said. “If you get stuck under a big guy, you are getting buried by a lot of weight.
“When I face bigger guys, I try to stay more on the outside, keep them moving and I almost try to make them work harder than I do and always focus on speed over strength.”
He also doesn’t try to tie up his opponent too close.
“If I tie up to close, a lot of the bigger guys are better at throwing than I am,” the 2018 national junior champion said.
DesChatelets is already in his fourth year at Brock and he’s scratching his head and wondering where the time has gone.
“I can’t believe it. It has flown by,” he said. “I can remember being here in first year and it doesn’t even seem like that year has passed by yet and I am already in fourth year.”
He went into crunch time of the university season riding the high of a third-place finish in the 97-kilogram division at December’s Olympic trials in Niagara Falls. The highlight was a close match with Nishan Randhawa of Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club, the eventual runner-up.
“When it comes down to the two top wrestlers, it becomes more of a mental game and because I did that much better against him this time, my mentality is a lot better and I am lot more confident in my moves,” he said. “I am looking forward to seeing them again and fighting them and hopefully I will win.”
DesChatelets remains wildly passionate about his sport.
“It’s that feeling when your arm get raised because you know that you put in all that work and you have everyone believing in you and giving you a lot of support to get there,” he said. “When you are in the middle in the ring and you’ve have won your match and are completely exhausted, you get this feeling inside that you can’t explain with words.”
That feeling carried over when the competition is done.
“When you come to practice, you want to get that feeling again but you want to do it even bigger,” he said. “You want to go up a scale and you want to accomplish more every time you win.”
Losing is equally motivating.
“It makes you hungrier and you don’t want to get that feeling again that someone has beaten you and it doesn’t feel like you have done your best.”
DesChatelets feels it is a big advantage to compete in front of a home crowd.
“I really like it when my friends and family come, especially my family,” he said. “It a really good thing and it just gives me that little extra energy than I wouldn’t have somewhere else.”
Brock, which recently won its fifth straight OUA men’s crown, is looking for its seventh straight men’s national team title.
“It’s the guys tournament to win,” Brock coach Dave Collie said. “I think there is a little separation between us and second place but anything can happen at a championship. There are some teams that are hungry and they want to knock us off.”
The championships start Friday at the Bob Davis Gymnasium. On Saturday, the bronze-medal matches will start at noon and the gold-medal matches will be contested at 2 p.m.
Tickets for the event are available at brocku.universitytickets.com
