Twelve members of the Concordia Stingers wrestling team excelled at the Atlantic-Quebec qualifying tournament on the weekend, earning berths at the upcoming CIS national championships.
Nine men and three women finished in one of the top two spots in their respective weight classes last Saturday at University of New Brunswick.
The Concordia men’s team is the defending national champion and will have strong representation across nine of the 10 weight classes at the nationals hosted by Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont. Feb.24-25.
David Tremblay, a three-time CIS gold medallist, will lead the Stingers. He is a former junior national champion and the current Canadian senior champion. Last Saturday, he finished first at 61 kilos.
Also in first place were: Noel Tremblay (57 kilos), James Mancini (65 kilos), Stephen Delayen (68 kilos), Scott Schiller (72 kilos), Mitch Krauter (76 kilos) and Nariman Irankhah (82 kilos). Trevor Banks (54 kilos) and Greg Rossy (130 kilos) finished second in their weight classes and also earned spots at nationals.
On the women’s side, all three Concordia student-athletes won their categories: Linda Morais (59 kilos), Nikita Chicoine (63 kilos) and Veronica Keefe (72 kilos).
The wrestling team is coached by Victor Zilberman who has run the Concordia program since 1977. He has guided his athletes to 58 gold medals and seven team titles at the nationals. Since 1980, Concordia has won 119 medals. In addition eight Concordia athletes have been named the outstanding wrestler at the CIS tournament, and Zilberman has been named Coach of the Year on four occasions - in 2011, 2006, 1986 and in 1984.
