Saturday February 24th was a busy day for Quebec wrestlers. The finals for the 2018 U-Sport National Championships and the Quebec Provincial Championships were held on the same day with the U-Sport Nationals taking place at the Gary Leach Complex of Alogma University in Sault-St-Marie and the Provincial Championships taking place at École Secondaire P.G. Ostiguy in St-Cesaire Québec.
Day 2 of the 2018 U-Sport Nationals
The finals for U-Sport Nationals began at 11:00 am with the 7-8 placement matches and the 5-6 placement matches. Wrestling for 7th place was Kaya Dubé-Snow at 55 kgs. Kaya Dubé-Snow finishes off in 7th place.
Dylan Mclean with the crotchlift on Kevin Leatherdale (Photo property of Jason Chen)
Wrestling for 5th place would be Geneviève Lamarche (72 kgs), Dylan Mclean (61 kgs) and Aron Orszack (76 kgs). Geneviève's match would have her facing off against Christelle Lans from the York University Lions. Geneviève would counter the leg attack and pin her opponent with a Chuck Yagler and win via Fall to finish off in 5th place. Next up going for 5th place was Dylan Mclean. Dylan's opponent would be Kevin Leatherdale from the Lakehead University Thunderwolves. After a back and forth match, Dylan would come away with the Decision win by a score of 10-6 and finish off in 5th place. Last up wrestling for 5th place was Aron Orszack who would face off against De'Andre Williams of the Cascades from the University of Fraser Valley. Aron would take cross ankles and finish the match via Technical Fall to secure 5th place.
Jade Dufour with the Chest Pressure on Grace Chambers (Photo property of Jason Chen)
In the Bronze medal finals, Concordia had a many athletes looking to leave with some hardware as Jade Dufour (51 kgs), Laurence Beauregard (59 kgs), Christina Corencova (63 kgs), Amanda Savard (67 kgs), Guseyn Ruslanzada (72 kgs), Samuel Barmish (82 kgs), Alex Moore (90 kgs) and Frederique Choquette (120 kgs) took to the mats.
Samuel Barmish (Photo property of Jason Chen)
In the first match Jade Dufour would face off against Grace Chambers of the University of Calgary Dinos. Despite a slow start, Jade would secure a decisive win via Decision to win by a score of 6-0 to win the Bronze. Next up to wrestle would be Laurence Beauregard who would wrestle against Kystin Paquette of the University of Alberta Pandas. Laurence's match proved to be much tougher as the scoring was back and forth but in the end Laurence would win by Decision (4-4) and would also win the Bronze Medal. Christina Corcenova would also face an opponent from University of Alberta Pandas in Haley Hefel. Christina would drop some points before trying to mount a comeback in the second round, eventually losing by Decision by a score of 9-2 to finish off in 4th place. Finishing off for the women, Amanda Savard would face Jasmine Thebeau of the UNB Varsity Reds in an all-east showdown. Amanda would start the match strong, eventually securing a hipsag to win her Bronze Medal final via Fall at 1:52 of the first round. This would mark the end of the Women’s competition.
Jordan Steen with the single leg takedown on Waylon Decoteau (Photo property of Jason Chen)
On the Men’s side, the Bronze medal finals would begin with Guseyn Ruslanzada facing off against Callum McNiece of the University of Calgary Dinos. Gusey would take an 8-0 lead going into the second period but would eventually win the match via Decision by a score of 10-6 to secure the Bronze Medal. Next up would be Samuel Barmish against Dan Humphrey of the Guelph Gryphons. Sam would wrestle a solid match and end up winning via decision by a score of 5-0. Looking to rebound, Alex Moore would face a tough Bronze Medal match against Hunter Lee from the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. Alex would take Hunter down and finish the match in thirty seconds via a cross ankles to win by Technical Fall (10-0). Last up wrestling for Bronze for the Concordia Men was Frederique Choquette against Jordan Tholl of the University of Regina Cougars. Fred would go on to win by a comfortable margin and win via Technical Fall (11-0) to win the Bronze.
Your First Team All-Canadians (Photo property of Jason Chen)
Going for Gold Medals, Concordia had three Men competing in the finals. Vince De Marinis was the first to wrestles, squaring off against Lucas Hoffert of the University of Regina Cougars. Vince would score the first takedown and never look back as he would win via Technical Fall (10-0) to take the Gold Medal and First Team All-Canadian Status. Next up was Francis Carter facing off against Mike Jagas of Brock University. After a tense match and some questionable calls, Francis would still gut out a hard-earned victory to win by decision by a score of 3-2 and also become a First Team All-Canadian. Last up was Jordan Steen versus Waylon Decoteau of the University of Regina Cougars. Decoteau would score first but Jordan would respond by securing a cross ankles and would win via Technical Fall (13-2) to become Concordia’s last First Team All-Canadian and to complete the clean sweep for Concordia in the Gold Medal Finals. To cap off the weekend at the awards ceremony, Francis Carter was named as the Male Outstanding wrestler for the tournament, becoming the first Stinger to win it since David Tremblay. Congratulations to all our university athletes on their tough week of competiton.
Francis Carter: Outstanding Male Wrestler for the tournament! (Photo property of Jason Chen)
Team Concordia looking good! (Photo property of Jason Chen)
Concordia would finish second in the Men's competition and fourth in the Women's competition. They would also take home ten medals out of fifteen athletes competing.
The Provincial Championships
The Provincial Championships were held in St-Cesaire on the same day and featured a large presence of Bantam wrestlers. The participation in the Provincials is mandatory if Quebec athletes want to go and compete at the Nationals though participation in the provincials does not guarantee you a spot at the Nationals as selection is made based on the athletes level of competitions done outside the province. All Quebec clubs were present at the Provincials with the exception of Concordia. The tournament in turn featured many good matches, more so than in previous years and finished later than usual.
For the complete results from the Provincials, click on the following links for each age group.
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