wrestling: Women win gold medal
Sabine Boersch, Sports Editor

The men's and women's teams wrapped up their championship wrestling season with the women winning the CIS title.

For the women, it was a sweet success for all as they finished their banner-winning year, and head coach Mike Jones was awarded the acclaimed prize of women's wrestling coach of the year.

For the men's side, it was Brock University's Marty Colder who was coach of the year.

The women were ranked number one all season and finished off their season with 49 points in the CIS national tournament, held in St. Catherines, Ontario. Gold medal performances came from Emily Richardson, Kathleen Takeda, and Sarah White.

"We have some high-level athletes with great drive and determination which has helped keep us on top, no matter who we wrestle," Jones said. "These women were poised and confident, and they were determined to win this championship."

The Clan were the defending champions in the tournament, as they upset the three-year CIS leaders, the University of Calgary, last year. This is the Clan's second year wrestling in the CIS. This year was a big win for all the gold medal winners. Last year, Richardson took her national title, and she was easily able to win it again in the 61-kilogram tournament this year.

This was Takeda's first national championship, as well as White's, who won silver last year in the 53-kilogram category as well as the CIS freshmen of the year. This year, she came back to defeat Terri McNutt of Western University to win the title.

The other medals that the women won at the tournament were brought in by freshmen Angela Mah, who brought home the bronze medal in the 65-kilograms match. Kristina Wolff lost for the second straight year to McMaster's Pam Wilson, a member of the Canadian National Team, in the 80-kilogram category. Wolff still took home the silver medal, and she contributed to the 12-point lead the Clan had over U of C.

Brock University finished in third.

For the men, it was an upset as BU took the first place on the podium with 74 points, and SFU in second with 67 points. This is Brock's sixth year as national champion. The University of Saskatchewan finished third with 41 points.

Jake Ledoux and Roozbeh Banihashimi both took gold medals in their categories, 61-kilograms and 90-kilograms respectively. Mikhail Adbul-Latif, SFU's and the CIS' heavy weight champion from last year, was knocked into silver medal position by 130-kilogram rookie of the year David Zilberman of Concordia University.

Nathan Rolfe also finished with a silver medal in the 76-kilogram category. Along with Abdul-Latif, Chris Harada also had a silver medal performance in the 68-kilogram category. Harada had a great season and took an all-American title in the NAIA this year. Danny Einhorn was the SFU wrestler that was biggest upset, moved out of his position by Adam Fera from BU. Fera also won outstanding male wrestler, following the unseating of Einhorn from his defending champion position.

BU had a total of six gold medal winners to take the championships.

Martine Dugrenier of Concordia was named the CIS' outstanding female wrestler. The woman's rookie of the year was Calgary's Laura McDougall. Dugrenier won her weight class at 70-kilograms, and McDougall won silver in the 65-kilogram category after losing to Guelph's only medal winner, Tara Hedican.

This wraps up the season for SFU's first-ranked wrestling program, and many of the wrestlers are currently preparing for the national team tryouts that are coming up in the summer.

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