File Photo: Claudine Champion

Wrestling dominates CanWest

The highlight of a strong year for the University of Alberta’s wrestling program came this past weekend at the Canada West championships with an impressive showing that cemented both the Bears’ and Pandas’ positions as strong contenders for nationals.

The U of A traveled to Regina for the CanWest finals where the Pandas, the defending national champions, won their first CanWest championship and the Golden Bears finished in second place. The Bears were just one point shy of Regina, but it was still their best finish in the CanWest finals since they last won silver in 1989.

Head coach Owen Dawkins attributed this success to a number of factors that have been in play since he took this job in 2009.

“It’s a lot of things. It’s having a structure that was in place. It’s coming in and trying to get the right athletes in place, getting the athletes to believe in what I’m trying to push,” Dawkins said. “I think it’s been a combination of many things now finally coming together and hopefully taking us to a national championship on both sides.”

The year so far for the Golden Bears has been characterized by a consistent struggle with the University of Regina at the top of the team standings at each event. However, Dawkins noted that there’s a major age difference between the two teams that has made it a struggle for the Green and Gold to compete with Regina all year.

“Regina has got a lot more experience than we do. They’ve got a lot more guys that have been to the CIS championships. Our team has five first-year guys on our team going into CIS, so I think that makes for a pretty inexperienced team,” Dawkins said.

That struggle will continue into the national championships, but the U of A holds an advantage here.Alberta was the only team to have a wrestler medal in each of the 10 weight classes on the men’s side and each of the eight weight classes on the women’s side, which means the U of A will be the only CanWest school to bring a full team to this event.

“It’s a little tougher to have a solid program of guys and women,” Dawkins explained. “We’ve managed to do that for this last year, we’ve been fairly consistent and I think that’s a big accomplishment for our university and our program.”

One of the standout players for the Golden Bears was first-year Dylan Williams who’s first-place finish in the 61kg weight class winning him CanWest Rookie of the Year. Williams’ finish is made more impressive considering he shares a weight-class with Regina’s three-time CanWest champion Kirk Ackerman.

Dawkins himself won the CanWest Coach of the Year on both the men’s and women’s sides. But he stressed his strong commitment to a team-oriented focus even when he’s receiving an award.

“It’s good, but it’s not one of the things that I look for. I’m more about seeing how our team performs and I think that’s an important thing. Seeing the team progressing is a little bit better than individual awards for myself. I had my awards back when I wrestled,” Dawkins said.

That progression has raised expectations for the U of A going into the CIS championships. The Pandas’ main competitor will be Brock University while the Golden Bears will be in a tight race with Regina, Concordia, McMaster and Western Ontario. But in both races Dawkins notes that the U of A will be frontrunners to win.

The CIS championships will take place February 24-25 in Thunder Bay, Ont.

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