This past weekend saw two strong tournaments happen in Ontario. The Bishop Ryan Invitational on Friday the 8th of December and The Matmen Classic Saturday the 9th of December. With these two tournaments being held back to back, and a training camp the following Sunday, the tournaments attract a large number of athletes from different provinces across Canada. This year, both tournaments featured athletes from many different provinces as Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova-Scotia, PEI and of course Quebec, were all represented at both tournaments.
Julien Choquette with the Double Leg
Bishop Ryan Invitational (Photo property of Jason Chen)
Jason Luneau with victory in the Gold Medal Final
Bishop Ryan Invitational (Photo property of Jason Chen)
In addition to this, both competitions were very strong as National and International level athletes and Canada Game participants competed with Bishop Ryan having 320 athletes and Matmen over 500. Quebec clubs and high schools sent athletes to the competitions and the results were quite good as CLIC, Heritage Regional High School, the Montreal YMHA, les Patriotes de St-Cesaire, Vanier College and Vincent Massey Collegiate all competed.
Jayden Sparks receives some advice between rounds
Bishop Ryan Invitational (Photo property of Jason Chen)
At the Bishop Ryan Invitational, wrestling for Heritage Regional High School, Stone Lewis took home a Gold medal at 61 kgs while for the Montreal YMHA, Jason Luneau (54 kgs) and Nicolae Grandrabura (58 kgs) both won Gold Medal in their respective divisions. Finally from Vanier College, Jayden Sparks (56 kgs), Erin Rainville (58 kgs), Nataël Lebrun-Cantin (69 kgs), Julien Choquette (88 kgs) and Jonathan Campagnolo (130 kgs) all won Gold while Samuel Rainville won Silver at 72 kgs.
Widely considered to be one of the best high school tournaments in the country, the Matmen Classic featured a step up in competition as even more athletes competed the following day. More Quebec clubs made their presence known as CLIC and St-Cesaire came to compete.
Christopher Merlo (Red) vs. Gregor McNeil (Blue)
Matmen Classic (Photo property of Jason Chen)
Erin Rainville with the Chest Pressure
Matmen Classic (Photo property of Jason Chen)
From CLIC Christopher Merlo (46 kgs) and Thomas Risk (92 kgs) both won Silver while Bilal Mafoudi won a Bronze medal at 80 kgs Cadet boys. Wrestling for the Montreal YMHA Ilie Dragoman won Gold at at 72 kgs Cadet while Jason Luneau won Bronze at 54 kgs and Nicolae Grandrabura lost a close final match at 58 kgs and came back with a Silver medal. Stone Lewis wrestling for Heritage Regional High School won all his matches to win Gold at 61 kgs.
Jayden Sparks with the hipsag
Matmen Classic (Photo property of Jason Chen)
Stone Lewis with the fireman carry
Matmen Classic (Photo property of Jason Chen)
Wrestling for les Patriotes de St-Cesaire in the Kids Division was Salomon Lacasse who won Gold at 36.1-37 kgs while in the Bantam Boys Division Nathan Rainville (35.4-38 kgs) and Émile Forgues (63.5-66 kgs) also won Gold. Rounding out the results for the Bantam Boys were Jacob Jutras (39-42 kgs) with a Silver Medal and Nathan Germain (47-50 kgs) with a Bronze Medal. In the Cadet Boys, Raphaël Hardy (72 kgs) and Mathis Rainville (80 kgs) both won Gold in their divisions.
Samuel Rainville with the Double Leg
Matmen Classic (Photo property of Jason Chen)
Nataël Lebrun-Cantin goes for the pin
Matmen Classic (Photo property of Jason Chen)
Finally from Vanier College, the results were the following. At 54 kgs, Jayden Sparks (54 kgs), Erin Rainville (58 kgs) and Julien Choquette (92 kgs) all won Gold in their divisions while Jonathan Campagnolo finished second at 100 kgs. Finishing off with Bronze Medals were Nataël Lebrun Cantin (65 kgs), Samuel Rainville (67 kgs) and Jaskaran Singh (72 kgs). These two tournaments represent some of the toughest competition for young wrestlers at this age group in the country and the strong performances by our young Quebec athletes is admirable.
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