News Re-cap:
Terri McNutt won the prestigious Guelph Open pinning SFU rival, Sarah White in the 51 kg women’s final. The mustang captain used a head-and-arm throw in the first minute that led to the pinning hold. “As soon as White was on her back, I knew Terri would get the pin,” remarked coach Ray Takahashi. “Terri’s a pinner and knows how to capitalize on the opportunity.” The tournament is considered to be the most competitive on the national domestic schedule as it is used to acquire national team carding points. McNutt, a graduate nursing student in her final year of eligibility, defeated White for the bronze medal at the 2005 CIS championships, but took the gold from McNutt in the CIS final in 2004. “She locked up with me and tried to throw me,” said McNutt, “that gave me the opportunity to counter and use my attack.” McNutt, earned her way to the finals by beating former Western star, Belinda Chou, now of Guelph W.C., also by the same pinning hold. “Terri knew her strategy was to control Belinda with tie-ups to take away her leg attacks,” said Takahashi. In a preliminary match, McNutt threw a spectacular 5-point back-suplay throw over Constance Tweedie (Halifax Metro W.C.) to win the match. The mustang women placed 2nd overall in team standings. Mustang teammate and first year standout, Kirby Steinhoff, took silver at 72 kg losing to Brock’s Jocelyn Dresser who won gold. Third year mustang and King’s student, Jill McCallum won bronze at 67 kg defeating Guelph’s, Megan Wilton in a hard fought match. The mustang men were shut out of the medals. Top mustang men were engineering students, Vi Nguyen-Huu who won 3 matches at 84 kg and Keenan Miller (74 kg) who won two matches. King’s student, Stewart Petrie (74 kg) and Ian Patton (5th place at 120 kg) also recorded match wins for the mustangs.
Both teams will be on the road Jan 27-29 when they compete in the Ontario Junior Provincial Championships and the Queen’s Open. “The junior will be an important tournament for our younger team members,” remarked Assistant Coach, Josip Mrkoci. “We use them to select our team to the Junior Nationals scheduled in Fredericton mid-March.”
The mustangs will host the Western Open at Alumni Hall, Saturday February 4, covered by Rogers Television. “It should be an excellent event,” says Takahashi. We have all OUA team attending as well as out-of-province teams and a few from the US. We’ve already received women team confirmations from Kentucky and Missouri.”
Guelph Open Team results:
Team Standings
Women
1 Brock 45
2 Western 25
3 Calgary 24
4 Guelph 23
5 Regina 21
6 Mac 14
6 SFU 14
Men
1 Brock 43
2 Montreal 36
3 BMWC 23
4 Mac 15
5 Guelph 12
6 Lakehead 10
6 Tornado 10
