The University of Guelph wrestling team travelled to Fredericton, New Brunswick, where the seven men that represented the Gryphons brought home bronze, and the three women for the red, black, and gold claimed sixth place overall at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Championships.
Brock, by and large, dominated the weekend. The Badgers were coming off an Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Championship where they picked up two silver medals, narrowly losing to Guelph’s men’s side and Western’s women’s side by two and three points, respectively.
The St. Catherine University made right on their second place finishes the weekend prior by dominating the competition. The Brock men won by 14 points over second-place Alberta, and the women won by a dominating 16 points over Calgary.
Brock’s dominance in New Brunswick saw their teams go home with seven gold medals in 18 total events, along with another four silver and a bronze.
As far as Guelph’s performances on the weekend were concerned, Jeremy Latour won gold in the 130 kg class, Tyson Frost won silver in the 82 kg class, Jake Jagas won bronze in the 76 kg class, Kevin Iwasa-Madge won gold in the 65 kg class, Oren Furmanov won bronze in the 54 kg class, and Kelsey Gsell won the women’s only medal, a gold in the 82 kg class.
Frost, who we interviewed in November 2013 for the article “True Grit: Hard work pays off for Tyson Frost,” had CIS gold on his mind all season, and went into the Championships in the top seed. Unfortunately, Frost lost in the last handful of seconds in the gold medal match to Brock’s Matrixx Ferreira, who he had beaten in last week’s OUA Championships. Despite the loss on the national stage, this was, overall, a successful season for Frost, who had come off a two-year hiatus due to injury.
The overall success of the Gryphons team is encouraging going forward. Frost, who still has OUA eligibility next season and plans to return to Guelph for a master’s program, won the Keegan Trophy for the most outstanding male wrestler at the OUA level, while Guelph’s Doug Cox won Coach of the Year honours, also at the OUA level.
Despite placing third and sixth at the CIS, Guelph will still enter next year as an OUA top contender, defending their men’s gold and women’s bronze.
Freshman Latour and senior Gsell brought home Gryphon athletes of the week for their medal-winning performances at the Championships.