Courtesy of CIS

FREDERICTON (CIS) – The Brock University Badgers completed their domination of the two-day CIS wrestling championships on Saturday at UNB’s Richard J. Currie Center, returning home with both team banners as well as 12 individual medals, seven of them gold.

It marked the third consecutive national team title for the Brock women, and their fourth overall, while the men returned to the top of the standings for the first time since their magical 10-run championship run from 1999 to 2008. The Badgers now have a record 14 CIS titles in men’s competition.

Brock had also swept the team banners back in 2001-02. The only other school to accomplish the feat since women’s wrestling was added to the CIS program 16 years ago was Simon Fraser, in 2009-10.

Individually, Brock was shut out of the athlete-of-the-year selections, but claimed both top-rookie and both coach-of-the-year trophies.

Brianne Barry of the Western Mustangs was named female MVP. The fifth-year senior from London, Ont., finally claimed her first CIS gold medal, defeating Concordia’s Liz Sera in the 55-kilogram final, after settling for silver in 2010, 2012 and 2013.

Male-MVP honours went to Michael Asselstine of the Alberta Golden Bears, who had a thrilling last-second comeback in his opening match on Friday against former CIS MVP Vince Cormier of UNB. The Edmonton native went on to defeat Concordia’s Vincent De Marinis in the 61 kg title bout, one year after taking silver at 65 kg.

Jessica Brouillette (59 kg) and Sam Jagas (54 kg) of the Badgers were named top freshmen after they both triumphed in their CIS championship debut, while their coach Marty Calder was named women’s and men’s coach of the year.

Both Brock squads entered Saturday with a comfortable 11-point cushion in the team standings and cruised to victory.

On the women’s side, the Badgers ended up with 50 points and were accompanied on the podium by the Calgary Dinos (36) and Western (35). The Alberta Pandas also tallied 35 points but were edged by the Mustangs for third place based on number of higher individual finishes.

In the men’s tournament, where there is two more weight divisions, Brock racked up 66 points to distance 2013 champ Alberta (50) and the Guelph Gryphons (48).

Five Brock women competed in individual finals and three of them delivered gold medals, including Brouillette, Jade Parsons and Carlene Sluberski, also former CIS rookies of the year. Parsons three-peated as 48 kg champion, while Sluberski was crowned at 51 kg after winning 55 kg gold in 2013.

Teammates Marissa Sorrell (67 kg) and Olivia DiBacco (72 kg) returned home with silver.

Other women’s champions crowned on Saturday included Concordia’s Linda Morais, who defended her 63 kg title, Concordia teammate Veronica Keefe (72 kg), Alberta’s Marlen Figueroa (67 kg) and Guelph’s Kelsey Gsell (82 kg).

On the men’s side, Brian Cowan (57 kg), Jevon Balfour (68 kg) and Matrixx Ferreira (82 kg) joined Jagas as Brock gold medallists. Tyler Rowe (72 kg) and Andrii Vorontsov (90 kg) added silver for the team champs, while Zack Falcioni (61 kg) earned bronze.

It was Balfour’s second straight CIS title at 68 kg, while Matrixx had triumphed at 76 kg a year ago.

The other gold medals went to Guelph teammates Kevin Iwasa-Madge (65 kg) and Jeremy Latour (130 kg), Western’s Josh Proctor (72 kg) and Riley Otto (90 kg), as well as UNB’s Shawn Daye-Finley.

Daye-Finley, the 2011 champ at 68 kg, gave the hometown crowd something to cheer about, beating Calgary’s Connor Hodgins in the 76 kg final to finish out his university career. The national team hopeful became UNB’s first-ever four-time medallist at the CIS meet, having also won a pair of bronze in 2013 (72 kg) and 2009 (65 kg).

NOTES: In addition to her gold medal at 63 kg, Concordia’s Linda Morais took home the R.W. Pugh Fair Play Award… Alberta’s Dylan Williams, who claimed silver at 57 kg, merited the men’s Pugh Award… The Student-Athlete Community Service Awards went to York’s Urshian Khalid (women) and Winnipeg’s Kyle Nguyen (men).

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS

NOTE: Tie-breaker is most gold, then most bronze, etc.

Women
1. Brock, 50 points
2. Calgary, 36
3. Western, 35
4. Alberta, 35
5. Concordia, 28
6. Guelph, 19
7. Lakehead, 19
8. Regina, 19
9. Saskatchewan, 15
10. McMaster, 12
11. UNB, 11
12. Toronto, 6
13. Winnipeg, 6
14. Memorial, 6
15. Algoma, 5

Men
1. Brock, 66 points
2. Alberta, 50
3. Guelph, 48
4. UNB , 36
5. Western, 35
6. Concordia, 30
7. Calgary, 23
8. Regina, 21
9. Saskatchewan, 20
10. McMaster, 19
11. Winnipeg, 18
12. Lakehead, 9
T13. Queen’s, 4
T13. Laurentian, 4
15. Memorial, 3
16. York, 2

INDIVIDUAL AWARD WINNERS

Women
Outstanding wrestler: Brianne Barry (55kg), Western
Rookie of the year: Jessica Brouillette (59kg), Brock
Coach of the year: Marty Calder, Brock
R.W. Pugh Fair Play Award: Linda Morais (63kg), Concordia
Student-Athlete Community Service Award: Urshian Khalid, York

Men
Outstanding wrestler: Michael Asselstine (61kg), Alberta
Rookie of the year: Sam Jagas (54 kg), Brock
Coach of the year: Marty Calder, Brock
R.W. Pugh Fair Play Award: Dylan Williams (57kg), Alberta
Student-Athlete Community Service Award: Kyle Nguyen, Winnipeg

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 55 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.

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