Concordia Journal Home > Archives > March 6, 2008 issue >

Marghetis earns fourth gold medal 

By Cory Rapkin

Tyler Marghetis, a fifth-year wrestler from Ottawa, ended a phase of his illustrious career this past weekend at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championships in Calgary by taking gold in the 76-kilo weight class. It marked his fourth gold medal since 2004, adding to the silver he received in 2003, when he won Concordia’s male rookie of the year honours as well.

“It felt wonderful,” said Marghetis on winning the tournament.

“I’ve been at Concordia for the last six years, and competed for five of them. I’ve been able to travel around the world to compete for [Athletics Director] Katie Sheahan, and I’m so grateful for all the support she’s given to Concordia wrestling. I was ecstatic when I won, because I really wanted to go out a champion.”

Marghetis was the only gold medal winner in a young Concordia contingent that sent eight wrestlers to the meet, including six rookies. They did, bring home some hardware, with newcomers Gurveer Talhan (61 kilos) and Alex Dyas (90 kilos) winning bronze in their classes .

Among the women, newcomer Nikita Chicoine won the silver medal in the 67-kilo weight class, falling only to Stacie Anaka of Simon Fraser University who was once a World Junior bronze medalist. Chicoine earned CIS female rookie of the year.

“We had lots of really good performances from first-year wrestlers, including Nikita, but we could have done better,” said Concordia assistant coach Robert Moore.

“I think our rookies showed what Concordia will bring to the table in the next few years. It won’t be easy to replace a guy like Tyler, but I believe we have what it takes to be a strong team in the future.”

Marghetis coasted through the preliminaries before meeting longtime rival Sheldon Francis of McMaster University in the final.

They have a long history, both as teammates and opponents, dating back nearly a decade when they trained for the Team Ontario juniors as part of different weight classes. A few years ago, the weight classes changed, pitting them against each other in several competitions.

In the third and final round, with the score tied at one and Francis holding the tiebreaker, Marghetis needed to get a point to avoid getting defeated. With time running out, he had to make a move. That move came with merely 10 seconds left on the clock, when he managed to throw Francis out of bounds, securing the point and winning the championship.

“I expected to face him [Francis] in the finals when I got here, but I also expected it to be a really good match, because Sheldon is no pushover,” said Marghetis.

“With 18 seconds left down a point, I did feel a little bit of pressure. But at the same time, I felt very excited, because I knew I was capable of coming back to win, and I really like it when it goes down to the wire. It’s my last year, and I really wanted to go out a champion, and it’s especially worthwhile given it’s against Francis, who is someone I have so much history with.”

“This was one of the best matches of the weekend,” Moore said. “You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Tyler. He’s a gentleman and he leads by example.”

With the victory, Marghetis adds to a long list of accolades that include three academic All-Canadians and two Concordia male academic athlete of the year awards in 2003-04 and 2005-06. Away from the CIS, he is Canada’s first alternate for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in the 74-kilo weight class.

At 24, Marghetis has completed his five-year eligibility. However, he will still be able to represent Concordia internationally until he’s 28, provided he remains a full-time student.

“I like school,” he said. “I do well. I’m currently doing a master’s in math and would like to do a PhD. Ultimately, I would like to work in academia as a professor or a researcher, and hopefully I can help out the wrestling team as long as possible.”