Friesen outstanding: Brock women second at USPORTS
USPORTS champion Mia Friesen is shown with other medalists in the 56-kilogram division.
Mia Friesen won the battle but her team lost the war.
The 20-year-old St. Catharines native won the 56-kilogram division at the USPORTS wrestling championships and was named the Female Wrestler of the Year in the process, but the Brock women’s team saw its streak of nine straight USPORTS championships snapped by the University of Alberta.
“I was surprised that I won the outstanding award but I wasn’t surprised with how I was wrestling,” the Governor Simcoe product said. “The coaches are so good at getting us ready and in the right mindset to go out there and fight.”
Before the award was announced Friesen and teammate Brianna Fraser were discussing who might win the honour.
“It was pretty cool. I was saying I thought it was going to be so and so and she looked at me and said, ‘I think it is going to be you.’ We laughed and I told her it wasn’t going to be me. Then they called my name and I had the stupidest look on my face.”
There were a number of factors that went into Friesen’s first USPORTS crown.
“The opportunities that I have been able to have from the last nationals until now have been great and it’s just believing in the process and the system at Brock. It’s what we do here and what Marty (Calder), Dave (Collie) and (Heather) Sweezey install in us,” she said. “I go to every practice ready to go, ready to fight and ready to get better. That’s really it.”
The next step in her progression is to continue to build her confidence.
“I need to know what moves are my moves.”
Gaining more experience will also help.
“I am champing at the bit to get that international and high-level senior experience. I want it so bad and I think that will definitely help elevate my wrestling.”
Women’s head coach Dave Collie was impressed with Friesen’s performance.
“She was the outstanding wrestler there and it was nice to see that the coaches got it right because sometimes they don’t. It can be where you’re from or whatever but she dominated her weight class,” he said. “She wrestled against an athlete from Concordia who has a lot of international experience and she didn’t just beat her, she dominated her in the first minute and a half and pinned her.”
Collie wasn’t shocked by her performance.
“We all knew she was capable of it but it was interesting to see what would happen. She went in there with high intensity and high confidence and it paid off for her.”
Friesen was sad to see Brock’s team winning streak come to an end even though the young team was a big underdog against top-ranked University of Alberta.
“USPORTS is a crazy tournament and we wanted to continue on with the legacy. Just because we lost, doesn’t mean the legacy dies,” she said. “We are going back into the room ready to win it next year, keeping work hard and putting a little chip on our shoulder. It sucks and it is disappointing but everything would have had to fall right for us.
“The sky didn’t fall when we lost and we are ready to go and fight the University of Alberta hard next year.”
Collie shares that attitude.
“We are a young team working hard to win a national championship and it will be good to have that goal for next year,” he said. “We got contributions from all our athletes which was good and we had to work or butts off for that second place. We were in a tight race with Mac (McMaster) and Calgary coming into the final session and all of our girls who were in the medal matches came through big.”
Also earning gold medals for Brock were Shauna Kuebeck at 76 kilograms and Brianna Fraser at 82 kilograms. Both won their championship matches by pins.
Other Brock results included: Vanessa Keefe who won who bronze at 72 kilograms; Jessica Tilmanns (63 kilograms) and Samantha Adams (77 kilograms) who were fourth; Daina Morris-Armstrong who was sixth at 53 kilograms; and, Kirztyn De Torres who was seventh at 50 kilograms.
“Even just competing at these national championships, we only had two that had been there before and that was Shauna and Daina,” Collie said.
