Two golden chances

Lakehead University is moving into the final day of the CIS national wrestling championships with a pair of golden opportunities.

Gaston Tardif will compete for the gold medal in his 57 kg weight class Saturday afternoon, while teammate Nicole Plummer will try to claim the top prize in her 82 kg weight category. Their trip to the championship matches were awarded after the wrestlers dominated their weight class pools in the three preliminary rounds at C.J. Saunders Fieldhouse Friday.  

Three other Thunderwolves wrestlers – Aislynn Torfason (59 kg), Dustin Helwig (54 kg) and Colten Woznow (90 kg) – will compete for bronze medals. The remaining six LU grapplers will hit the mats once more in the classification matches, which will determine their final placement in their weight class.

“I’m proud of them for their efforts, they had a very tough day and I told them I was exhausted just watching them; I can’t imagine how they feel,” said LU’s head coach Brock Curtis. “That’s a lot of energy to be in this gym all day.

“They may have only had three matches, but the amount of time they spent warming up and the amount of nervous energy they used, they’ve been going since 8 a.m. You have to be in great shape to do this and last throughout the day.”

The team’s efforts were inspiring, he added.

If every Thunderwolves wrestler wins their Saturday match, the team will finish the CIS championships with 60 points – 32 points from the women wrestlers and 28 from the men.

Curtis said taking it light will be his strategy with the LU wrestlers going into tomorrow’s matches.

“The worst thing I can do is say things like ‘you have to win, you need to win, you’re in front of the home crowd and this is it,’” he said. “That would be murder. I think we need to keep things light. They put enough pressure on themselves.”

For Tardif, Saturday’s championship match is his chance to collect the one CIS medal that has eluded him. Tardif wrestled for CIS gold in 2009, but a loss sent him home with the silver instead. Last year he didn’t make it to the gold medal match, but was able to snag bronze.

“I’m excited. I’ve been to the finals before so I’m excited to compete again in the gold medal finals,” he said.

Tardif had three impressive preliminary matches, defeating two of his opponents by point superiority and pinning the other.

Despite his dominant performance in the preliminary matches, Tardif isn’t taking his championship opponent lightly. Concordia University’s David Tremblay, who finished first in the 57 kg Pool A, has defeated Tardif before.

“I’m just going to wrestle hard,” Tardif said. “I’ve lost to the guy a couple times so I just want to pick it up and wrestle well and hopefully I can beat him.”

As for Plummer, she will be going up against a multiple CIS champion – University of Calgary’s Leah Callahan. Curtis said it’s a big opportunity for her, and while the opponent may have CIS medals on her resume, the LU product may have the home weight class advantage.  

“(Callahan) is moving up a weight category, so it might be different for her,” Curtis said. “She’s meeting someone who is bigger than her, but who I believe moves just as well.”

Callahan’s jump into the 82 kg weight class was a recent change, while Plummer has been wrestling there for a couple of years.

Championship matches are scheduled to take place at the C.J. Saunders Fieldhouse at 2 p.m. The bronze metal matches will begin at 12:30 p.m., while classification round matches are set for 11 a.m.

Live webcasts for the all Saturday matches can be viewed at www.ssncanada.ca/games.