Clan impressive at Harry Geris Memorial Duels

By Clay Gray

The women’s wrestling team travelled to London, Ontario on Nov. 16, to compete at the Harry Geris Memorial Duels. They were met by many of the top university teams in North America including Oklahoma City University, who were on a 75-duel win streak, and also had only one tie in their last 91 duels heading into the tournament. As with many duel tournaments, the day began with pool rounds, followed by cross overs, and then a championship round.

SFU was swimming in deep waters early as they drew Lakehead, Missouri, McMaster, and Oklahoma City. The Clan clouted the first three opponents, toppling Lakehead 29–1, manhandling Missouri 26–5, and blanking McMasters 25–0. In the final round of pool play the Clan came up against the Oklahoma City University Stars. OCU offered some resistance for SFU, but the Clan proved to be more than the Stars could handle and handed the four-time defending national Champions its first loss in four years, 21–10. Head coach Mike Jones said, “As a team, we’ve lost to them for four straight years, so it was a very good performance from our girls.” SFU continued their dominance in the crossover round, trouncing Alberta 27–5 and securing a berth in the championship round.

The finals duel was a rematch between SFU and OCU, but the Stars fielded a slightly revamped line-up in an attempt to get their win streak started again. The duel started off with SFU’s Victoria Anthony scoring a technical fall over Emily Webster giving the Clan a 4–0 lead. The next weight pitted three-time defending national champion, Joey Miller, against Nikki Brar. While Brar had beat Miller in the first duel, she would fall short the second time around getting pinned in the first period, giving the Stars a one-point lead. Senior Laura Wilson snatched a three-round decision over Rachel McFarland and taking back the lead, 7–6. Laura Gordon grappled two-time All-American Audrey Morehouse in a two round decision with Morehouse being victorious the Stars jumped back into the lead at the halfway point, 9–7.

SFU fielded Sidney Morrison in the 63-kilo weight class against Stephanie Geltmacher, with Morrison Clawing out a two-round decision over the two-time All-American snatching back the lead, 10–9. Danielle Lappage kept the Clan rolling by pinning Kayla Aggio in a mere 27 seconds, Clan leads 15–9. Junior Justina DiStasio battled to a three-round decision win over Brittney Roberts, which guaranteed the Clan a victory regardless of the final match’s outcome, 18–10 for the Clan. In a reversal of the earlier duel’s outcome Jenna McLatchy fought to a three-round decision victory over returning All-American Heather O’Connor. The final score was 21–11. Former world junior champion Victoria Anthony said, “OCU hadn’t actually lost [in the last four years] so it was a really big deal. The team is inspired, we plan to continue our success and win nationals.”