Brock, Concordia look to defend CIS wrestling titles in London
Championship website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wrest/index
OTTAWA (CIS) – The Brock University women and Concordia University men hope to defend their team titles this weekend when the top varsity wrestlers in the country meet in London, Ont., for the 2013 CIS championships.
The two-day national meet returns to Western University for the first time since 2000. The preliminary rounds are set for Friday, starting at 10 a.m., with the classification matches (10 a.m.), bronze-medal bouts (12:30 p.m.) and championship finals (2:30 p.m.) following on Saturday at Alumni Hall.
All sessions from both days will be webcast live on www.CIS-SIC.tv.
On the women's side, the defending champion Badgers are ranked second going into the CIS meet behind the Alberta Pandas, who claimed their first national banner two years ago.
Both teams are coming off comfortable wins at their respective conference championships as Brock distanced Western by 10 points for the OUA title, while Alberta finished with a 13-point cushion over Calgary at the Canada West competition.
Alberta, Brock and Western will be represented in seven of eight weight classes this weekend, while Calgary will compete in six divisions.
At last year's nationals, the Badger women triumphed in four divisions and also had a second-place finish. However, only one of their 2012 gold medallists - Jade Parsons at 48kg - is back to defend her title. Reigning 59kg champ Natasha Chang will also compete this week but she moved up to 63kg this season.
At least six new individual champions will be crowned on Saturday as Parsons and Chang are the only individual titlists from last year who will be in London.
It's a different story on the men's side, where six of the 10 gold medallists from 2012 are back, including five who remained in the same weight category.
Two of those golden boys - David Tremblay at 61kg and James Mancini at 65kg - are from reigning two-time champion Concordia.
A native of Stoney Point, Ont., Tremblay hopes to enter the record books on Saturday as he looks to become only the fifth wrestler in CIS history – and the third male – to finish his university career with the maximum of five individual gold medals. Three of the four athletes who previously accomplished the feat did so in consecutive years.
Tremblay, who represented Canada at the 2012 Olympics (55kg), was named CIS male wrestler of the year in 2009 after he claimed gold at 61kg as a freshman, and never looked back. He prevailed at 57kg the next two seasons before returning to 61kg last year.
In the team national rankings, the Concordia men trail the Alberta Golden Bears and Western Mustangs going into the CIS tournament
The Canada West champion Bears are the only squad that will have a full roster of 10 male competitors in London. The championship host and OUA champ Mustangs will have nine and the Stingers, eight.
Two Western returnees are 2012 gold medallists. Steven Takahashi will defend his title at 54kg, while Ilya Abelev will surrender his 68kg crown as he moved up to 72kg this season.
The other returning champions in men's competition are Regina's Steven Schneider (57kg) and Saskatchewan's Ryan Myrfield (72kg).
NOTES: Takahashi, Abelev and Myrfield are all looking for their third straight CIS title. Myrfield aims for his fourth gold overall... Former Brock teammates Ryan Weicker (2001-2005) and James Macari (2003-2007) are the only two male wrestlers to have won five CIS individual gold medals... On the women's side, Calgary's Gen Haley won five straight gold medals (2007-2011), while Ali Bernard claimed four in four years for Regina (2005-2008) and added a fifth triumph after transferring to Alberta (2010).
PAST CIS TEAM CHAMPIONS
Women (inaugural women's championship in 1999)
2012 Brock
2011 Alberta
2010 Simon Fraser
2009 Calgary
2008 Simon Fraser
2007 Calgary
2006 Simon Fraser
2005 Simon Fraser
2004 Simon Fraser
2003 Simon Fraser
2002 Brock
2001 Calgary
2000 Calgary
1999 Calgary
Men (last 20 years)
2012 Concordia
2011 Concordia
2010 Simon Fraser
2009 Simon Fraser
1999 to 2008 Brock (10 straight titles)
1998 Regina
1997 Regina
1996 Brock
1995 Brock
1994 McMaster
1993 Manitoba
PAST CIS WRESTLERS OF THE YEAR (last 10 years)
Women
2012 Emma Brightwell, Lakehead
2011 Gen Haley, Calgary
2010 Gen Haley, Calgary
2009 Heidi Erdle, Calgary
2008 Miranda Dick, Simon Fraser
2007 Hana Askren, Concordia
2006 Emily Richardson, Simon Fraser
2005 Ellen Macro, McMaster
2004 Martine Dugrenier, Concordia
2003 Tara Hedican, Guelph
Men
2012 Preston Mikulasik, Lakehead
2011 Vince Cormier, UNB
2010 Shujon Mazumber, Toronto
2009 David Tremblay, Concordia
2008 Dustyn Fisher, Simon Fraser
2007 Jamie Macari, Brock
2006 Sheldon Francis, McMaster
2005 Ryan Weicker, Brock
2004 Adam Fera, Brock
2003 David Kooperberg, Calgary
CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE (all sessions webcast live on www.CIS-SIC.tv)
Thursday, February 28
17:00 Weigh-ins (Sheraton Hotel – Balmoral Ballroom)
Friday, March 1
10:00 Preliminaries Round 1 (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
13:00 Preliminaries Round 2 (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
15:30 Preliminaries Round 3 (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
Saturday, March 2
10:00 Classification matches 5th-8th place (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
12:30 Bronze-medal matches (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
14:30 Championship finals (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
18:00 Awards Banquet (Sheraton Hotel – Bristol Ballroom)
About Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, 11,000 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 54 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on:
