Exceptional performances by veteran Vincent De Marinis and rookie Fred Choquette helped the Concordia men’s wrestling team finish sixth out of 14 universities at the U SPORTS national championship in Winnipeg on the weekend.
De Marinis, a fourth-year competitor, won a gold medal in the 65-kilo weight class. It is the second consecutive gold medal for the Pierrefonds, Que. native. It is also his fourth medal at nationals. He picked up a silver at 61 kilos as a rookie in 2014. He moved up a weight class in 2015 and settled for a bronze.
He won his preliminary matches on Friday and then defeated Brock University’s Mizam Tamaradze in the gold medal match on Saturday.
Choquette, a rookie from St. Paul d'Abbotsford, Que., won a bronze medal in the heavyweight category by defeating Jordan Tholl from the University of Regina.
Also contributing to Concordia’s totals were: Francis Carter, fourth at 68 kg; rookie Jeremy Poirier, fifth at 100 kg; Dima Gershanov, sixth at 72 kg; rookie Kyle Price, sixth at 82 kg and veteran Chris Kinsella, seventh at 76 kg.
Concordia had a total of 33 points for the sixth-place finish. Brock won the competition with 77 points.
On the women’s side, Concordia competed in two categories.
Second-year athlete Jade Dufour won a silver medal at 51 kilos. The Belle River, Ont. native had a perfect preliminary round on Friday, but lost to Tina McLaren of Brock in the gold medal match on Saturday.
Genevieve Lamarche finished seventh at 72 kg.
With only two competitors, Concordia picked up 10 points to finish 10th out of 14 teams. Brock also won the women’s competition with 67 points.
