Wrestling team earns four medals

dan plouffe

Concordia’s wrestling team proved it produces the best individual wrestlers in the country by placing six of its seven athletes on the podium at last weekend’s National Championships, hosted by Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont.

The Stingers brought home four gold medals — David Zilberman in the heavyweight class, Jonathan Rioux in the 90 kg division, Tyler Marghetis (76 kg) and Tim Wadsworth (65 kg) – while James Mancini won silver (61 kg) and senior Tony Ronci won his first career medal from the Nationals, a bronze in the 68 kg competition.

Wadsworth was named the Concordia-Sir Winston Churchill Pub Athlete of the Week for his efforts, which included the remarkable feat of not having a single point scored on him by any of his opponents in all bouts.

“All of them were such great representatives of Concordia University and Montreal,” said Victor Zilberman, who was named Canadian Interuniversity Sport Men’s Wrestling Coach of the Year for his work with the Stingers.

“They showed such great character. They’re a super group, and any coach would be proud of them.”

The Stingers placed second in the team standings, just three points behind Brock, which had nine wrestlers compete in the 10 weight classes.

“The CIS Championships are fun for me because it’s more of a team atmosphere, whereas in most competitions, it’s an individual thing,” said Marghetis, who dominated his opponents en route to his third consecutive CI Sport title. “And I get to represent Concordia, which has been very good to me, very supportive.”

In other news, congratulations to head coach John Dore, who was unanimously selected Quebec University Basketball League Coach of the Year. This was the second consecutive year he has won the honour.