Canada wasn\u2019t ready for the Brock Badgers\u2019 varsity young guns.<\/p>\n
No. 2 seed Ligrit Sadiku and No. 4 Clayton Pye of the Brock men\u2019s wrestling team earned their spot to compete for Canada after overcoming a field of the top wrestlers in the country during the Canadian Wrestling Trials in Niagara Falls last weekend.<\/p>\n
Brock Wrestling Club was well represented with a total of 10 wrestlers competing in the finals on Saturday, including second place finishers Jade Parsons (53kg), Hannah Taylor (57kg), Olivia Di Bacco (68kg) in the women\u2019s freestyle events and Chris McIsaac (65kg) and Tyler Rowe (74kg) on the men\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ups and downs, the celebrations and the heartache, it\u2019s tough on all of us because you\u2019re with the kids emotionally and you know how much work they put in,\u201d said Brock Head Coach Marty Calder.<\/p>\n
Sadiku, a 23-year-old Kinesiology student from Summerside, P.E.I. and Pye, a 24-year-old Psychology student from Ingersoll, Ont. will take the next step towards the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan when they wrestle at the 2020 Pan-American Olympic Qualification Tournament in Ottawa from March 13 to 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking this team means a lot to me as this was the tournament I have spent countless years training for,\u201d said Sadiku. \u201cI have now completed a crucial step to fulfilling my dream of going to the Olympics, so it means the world to me that I made this team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sadiku outlasted Aso Palani of Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club in the men\u2019s freestyle 57-kilogram weight class.<\/p>\n
He lost the first match by a 4-3 decision, but despite a controversial call, Sadiku quickly adapted and started reading Palani like an open book.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s pros and cons to facing the same opponent multiple times in a row,\u201d said Sadiku. \u201cFor me, the opponent becomes more predictable. I think one of my strengths is that I\u2019m good at adjusting and learning how opponents wrestle.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the second bout, Sadiku roared out of the gates and started to flex his offence, which his coach would like for him to use more often.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis offence is extremely difficult to stop,\u201d said Calder. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t know how good he is. He\u2019s a special kid, a special athlete. His ceiling is so high. I think a tournament like this shows the level he can compete at, which is a whole other level. This is the step that will catapult him to his next level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sadiku rinsed Palani 12-2 by tech fall in the very next round.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be tough to refocus and gain confidence to beat them in the next match after losing on controversial call,\u201d said Sadiku. \u201cThankfully, I was able to come out more aggressively the second match and ride the momentum into the third match.\u201d<\/p>\n
He sealed the deal in the third round with a 4-1 decision.<\/p>\n
For Pye, earning his spot on the Canadian team is “everything.”<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve been trying to earn that Canada singlet since I started wrestling,\u201d said Pye. \u201cIt\u2019s another milestone in my journey. Stay tuned because there\u2019s more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pye, a defensive juggernaut, remained unrattled despite suffering a huge cut under his right eye, which required on-site cauterization from the swift medical staff, in the first round of the men\u2019s freestyle 86kg finals versus Alex Brown-Theriault of the Carleton Wrestling Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a pretty hard headbutt from Alex,\u201d said Pye. \u201cI wasn\u2019t super surprised, because he had torn up all his opponents\u2019 faces on Friday. Only difference was he had three matches to mash my face up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pye won by tech fall 15-4, but Brown-Theriault won the second meeting by a 9-2 decision.<\/p>\n
In Round 3, Pye dominated Brown-Theriault 13-2 by tech fall.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s strong as heck and he\u2019ll wear you down,\u201d said Calder of Pye. \u201cHe\u2019s been here for only four years, so for him to win the Olympic Trials is an incredible feat for him.”<\/p>\n
Brock Wrestling Club members Jessie MacDonald (50kg) and Michelle Fazzari (62kg) each punched their ticket to the Olympic qualifier.<\/p>\n
MacDonald, a three-time World Champion medallist, defeated Madison Parks in two consecutive finals matches on Saturday, which was also her 35th birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always said it, it\u2019s not one person that steps on that mat. I knew I had so many people behind me,\u201d said MacDonald. \u201cIt\u2019s not just my friends and family, but it\u2019s my therapists, my coaches, my training partners. I could never give back for what these people have given me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fazzari, a 2016 Olympian who worked her way back from injury at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, swept fellow Brock wrestler Jessica Brouillette by decisions of 3-0 and 3-2. The complete list of of winners is below.<\/p>\n
Women<\/strong><\/p>\n 50kg Jessie MacDonald<\/p>\n 53kg Samantha Stewart<\/p>\n 57kg Linda Morais<\/p>\n 62kg Michelle Fazzari<\/p>\n 68kg Danielle Lappage<\/p>\n 76kg Erica Wiebe<\/p>\n Men<\/strong><\/p>\n 57kg Ligrit Sadiku<\/p>\n 65kg Dillon Williams<\/p>\n 74kg Jasmit Phulka<\/p>\n 86kg Clayton Pye<\/p>\n 97kg Jordie Steen<\/p>\n 125kg Amar Dhesi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ligrit Sadiku and Clayton Pye of the Brock men\u2019s wrestling team earned their spot to compete for Canada after overcoming a field of the top wrestlers in the country during the Canadian Wrestling Trials in Niagara Falls last weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":62643,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3319,1,4,58],"tags":[256,4437,5951,3331,699],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62641"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62645,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62641\/revisions\/62645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}