Ex-teammates stir wrestling drama

RYAN PEYETTE, London Free Press Sports Reporter ( February 22, 2004)

   

Western's Terri McNutt was upset, frustrated and disgusted -- and she won the provincial title. Lakehead's Rachel Dean was bloody, teary-eyed and wistful about the one that got away.

The two former Mustangs teammates clearly weren't happy but they provided the top drama in their women's 53-kilogram showdown at the Ontario university wrestling championships yesterday at Thames Hall.

Trailing 11-6 with under a minute to go in an intense match, McNutt executed a successful five-point throw and rallied to pin Dean for the win and her second straight Ontario title.

"I'm not pleased, I wrestled awful, I can wrestle 20 times better than that," said McNutt, a nursing student from Joyceville. "That head-and-arm throw's my bread and butter and I try not to use it because everybody knows it and tries to defend it.

"But there, I had to use it. I had no choice. There's a lot of work to be done between here and CIs (the Canadian university championships March 4-6 at Brock in St. Catharines)."

Dean, 24, a Woodstock Huron Park grad who wrestled for four years at Western before heading to Thunder Bay for a master's degree in kinesiology, lost three previous times to McNutt this season and felt she let her guard down at the worst possible time.

"I learned that I can never stop wrestling," she said. "I was leading and I thought I could just waste the clock. It's definitely a rivalry with her. Obviously, I'm disappointed.

"It was tough to hear all of my old teammates cheering for her. I understand why, but it's still tough."

Just before the break, Dean needed treatment for a bloody nose likely caused by an accidental blow from McNutt's elbow.

"I don't know how it happened and she probably doesn't, that's part of wrestling," McNutt said.

When the match resumed, Dean took control and the fifth-year wrestler looked poised for victory -- before McNutt's big throw.

"We were teammates my first year," McNutt said, "but I didn't practise much with her. I was up a weight class and I was with the younger girls and she wrestled with the more experienced ones."

McNutt's win was Western's lone individual title. Brock won its 10th straight men's crown and fourth women's championship (by four points over Western).

The Mustangs men finished in fifth on the strength of captain Eric McAllister's second-place finish in the 76-kg class.