The Brock Badgers won their seventh-straight U SPORTS Wrestling Championship Saturday, Feb. 22 with four women\u2019s gold medals and three men\u2019s. They pulled off the sweep on home soil, winning their 10th women\u2019s title and 20th men\u2019s title in the Bob Davis Gymnasium at Brock University.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been looking forward to this all year,\u201d said Head Coach Marty Calder. \u201cTo be able to win here in front of our home crowd is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the wrestling dynasty that Brock has become, Calder said the pressure was more on winning the 2020 title and less on continuing the legacy of success.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to put the pressure to sustain that on them. They\u2019re just looking at this national championship \u2013 our team, this year,\u201d said Calder, who was named the U SPORTS Wrestling Fox 40 Coach of the Year at the post-tournament banquet Saturday night. \u201cMaybe that\u2019s why we\u2019re able to do it because we\u2019re not looking to load the last six years on our back and say we have to keep it going.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re extremely proud of the effort these student-athletes make day-in and day-out in the wrestling room and the classroom,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Among the four women\u2019s gold medals won by Brock were the two captured by Julie Steffler and Hannah Taylor, who were rivals on the wrestling mat for four years before becoming Brock Badgers teammates.<\/p>\n
A year ago, Taylor beat Steffler, who was with Western at the time, to win her second-straight women\u2019s 59 kg title. After graduating with her undergrad degree, Steffler decided to switch to Brock to take a Master of Professional Kinesiology, and brought with her one more year of U SPORTS eligibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really feels like a big family at Brock,\u201d said Steffler, who sat out her third year at Western after tearing her ACL. \u201cWe\u2019ve had an ongoing rivalry, but we\u2019ve always respected each other so it\u2019s been awesome to be her teammate.\u201d<\/p>\n
After watching Steffler win the 59 kg gold medal bout, Taylor dominated the 63 kg final, beating Lakehead\u2019s Madison Clayton.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot. I\u2019m at a new weight class so I wanted to continue being dominant,\u201d she said. \u201cIt also feels great to have the home crowd and showcase what Brock is about and our abilities as athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor said she has enjoyed having her former rival now pushing her as a teammate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good that I have such a strong competitor as a teammate,\u201d she said. \u201cI get pushed by her every single day, so it\u2019s a good relationship. I\u2019m grateful to have her as my teammate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first gold medal of the day Saturday came from fourth-year Badgers wrestler Ligrit Sadiku, who beat Calgary\u2019s Emmanuel Olapade in the men\u2019s 65 kg final.<\/p>\n
While it was Sadiku\u2019s third-straight U SPORTS title, the Summerside, P.E.I. native admitted his attention is focused more on the 2020 Summer Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t what my ultimate goal is. I want to go to the Olympics, so this is just a stepping stone,\u201d said Sadiku, who will next compete in the Pan-American Olympic Qualification Tournament in Ottawa from March 13 to 15. \u201cJust winning isn\u2019t enough so I\u2019m glad I was challenged. Even though I won, I\u2019m not happy with it. I let off the gas a bit and he took advantage of that. That\u2019s the mistake I made and that\u2019s what I\u2019ll learn from.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Olympics are also his biggest priority, a gold in the men\u2019s 100 kg category was a big relief for Brock\u2019s Clayton Pye.<\/p>\n
The fifth-year Ingersoll native won the U SPORTS title in 2018 but lost in the semi-finals last year. He came into the 2020 Championships having won the Olympic Trials in Niagara Falls in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was just so much pressure on me to win, and I was pretty dominant throughout the tournament, but I was still a little bit nervous because it meant so much more,\u201d Pye said. \u201cI really wanted to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the gold medals won by Sadiku and Pye, their teammate Cruiz Manning took gold in the 68 kg division, where he quickly beat McMaster\u2019s Connor Quinton.<\/p>\n
Winning additional gold medals for the Brock women were Shauna Kuebeck, who beat Saskatchewan\u2019s Maddison Haney in the 82 kg division and Skyler Grote, who handily beat Calgary\u2019s Ellise Daynes in the 67 kg division.<\/p>\n
The title was was redemption for Grote, a New Jersey native who chose to wrestle at Brock over going the NCAA route. In her rookie year, she had to overcome adversity to win a bronze medal at the 2019 U SPORTS Wrestling Championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the first seed going in last year and in the first match I lost by a point and had to battle back,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was in the back of my mind in this tournament. I just wanted to come back and prove that I am number one.\u201d<\/p>\n
An American citizen, Grote is trying to make the U.S. Olympic team. To do so, she has to finish first or second at a final qualifying event in Pennsylvania at the end of March, and then make it through the Olympic trials five days later.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this was a great opportunity to put pressure on myself because I am going to be under pressure in a month,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was a national championship on the line, so it mimics the situation I\u2019ll be in. I wanted to win this and get a little momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other Brock wrestlers on the podium included Samantha Romano, silver in 48 kg, Garette Saunders, silver in 57 kg, Joseph Martin, Joseph Martin, bronze in 61 kg, Ty Bridgwater, bronze in 76 kg, Ignatius Pitt, bronze in 90 kg and Richard Deschatelets, silver in 120 kg.<\/p>\n