Four former Badgers capture Wrestling Canada Team Trials

(Strathcona County, AB) – After three days of top-calibre Freestyle and Greco-Roman competition, the Canadian Wrestling Team Trials conclude in Strathcona County Alberta, with Canada's top wrestlers earning opportunity within Olympic weight classes.

Four former Brock University wrestlers and alumni won the Wrestling Canada Team Trials including Jasmine Mian (48kg), Michelle Fazzari (58kg), Cleo Ncube (74kg) and Alex Brown-Theriault at 85kg Greco Roman.

Fazzari won the best 2-out-of-3 finals at 58kg defeating Linda Morais (Montreal YMHA) 2-1. (W 5-3, L 4-3, W 5-3). 20-year old Jevon Balfour lost in the finals of 74kg against former Brock wrestler Cleo Ncube 2-0 (L 4-4, L11-0).

Both Olivia Di Bacco and Jessica MacDonald lost in the semi-finals of the ladder. MacDonald lost to Brock alumni Jasmine Mian 5-2 who went on to win the 48kg weight class and qualified for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Di Bacco knocked off former world silver medalist Staci Anaka 2-1 at 69kg, before losing to Leah Ferguson by pinfall.

CJ Hudson posted a 3-1 record winning the pool at 65kg, before losing 6-0 to Michael Asselstine (Bears WC) on the ladder. He defeated Brian Hutton (Dinos WC) (W 11-0), Spenser Burk (Dinos WC) (W 17-6) and Scott Schiller (Montreal YMHA) (W 12-7). In her Team Trials debut, Jessica Brouillette lost by pinfall to Danielle Lappage (Burnaby Mountain WC) who went on to win 63kg.

"With weight class rankings completed, Wrestling Canada Lutte staff can now concentrate on team preparations for the upcoming international qualification events in order to guarantee Canadian entries for the 2016 Olympic Games," says Wrestling Canada Lutte Executive Director Tamara Medwidsky. "Our focus now turns to the Pan Am Olympic qualifier in Frisco in March."

To date, the women's freestyle wrestling weight classes that were qualified at the 2015 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas include 48KG and 63KG.

The international qualifying event schedule, including the Frisco event includes:
Pan American Olympic qualifier, March 4-6, 2016 (Frisco, USA) – top two in each style and weight-class qualify,
The first international qualifier event, April 22-24, 2016 (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
– top three male and top two females in each style and weight-class qualify
The final international qualifier event, May 6–8, 2016 (Istanbul, Turkey)
– top two in each style and weight-class.

Coming out of the Strathcona County event competition, the top-ranked wrestlers within the Olympic weight classes are:
FS57 – John Pineda (Burnaby Mountain WC)
FS65 – Haislan Garcia (Burnaby Mountain WC)
FS74 – Cleo Ncube (Montreal YMHA)
FS86 – Tamerlan Tagziev (Team Impact WC)
FS97 – Arjun Gill (Burnaby Mountain WC)
FS125 – Korey Jarvis (Guelph WC)

FW48 – Jasmine Mian (Dinos WC) – Qualified for the 2016 Olympics
FW53 – Samantha Stewart (Black Bears WC)
FW58 – Michelle Fazzari (Brock WC)
FW63 – Danielle Lappage (Burnaby Mountain WC) – Qualified for the 2016 Olympics
FW69 – Dorothy Yeats (Tristar WA)
FW75 – Erica Wiebe (Dinos WC)

GR59 – Steven Takahashi (London-Western WC)
GR66 – John Yeats (Tristar WA)
GR75 – Shawn Daye-Finley (Black Bears WC)
GR85 – Alex Brown-Theriault (Black Bears WC)
GR98 – Alex Thoms (Black Bears WC)
GR130 – Korey Jarvis (Guelph WC)

For complete results from the men's freestyle, women's freestyle and Greco-Roman competition from the Canadian Wrestling Trials competition visit: https://wrestling.ca/teams/canadian-wrestling-team-trials. Wrestling Canada Lutte thanks the event hosts and organizing committee including the Friends of the World Cup of Wrestling Society and Strathcona County.

Source: Brock Badgers