The University of the Fraser Valley wrestling program turned in an outstanding collective performance at the Canada West wrestling championships in Calgary, and it was
Amarvir Atwal leading the way.
Atwal dominated the men's 76 kilogram weight class, upsetting reigning Canada West champ Miles Kent of the Alberta Golden Bears on his way to a perfect 3-0 record in the round robin. He was rewarded with the Canada West male athlete of the year award, as voted by the coaches. The sophomore from Surrey, B.C. becomes the second straight Cascade to earn the CW wrestler of the year accolade,
following in the footsteps of Brad Hildenbrandt, last year's winner.
The rest of the Cascades' contingent won no less than silver in their respective weight classes.
Jason Bains joined Atwal on the top step of the podium, winning the men's 100 kg;
Calista Espinosa took silver in the women's 48 kg;
Ali Rahguzar finished second in the highly competitive men's 68 kg; and
Karan Dhillon won silver in the men's 90 kg.
FULL RESULTS
"The team performed really well," enthused coach Gurjot Kooner. "This is where we want to be at this point of the season. A lot of them will continue on after the U SPORTS championships (Feb. 21-22 in St. Catharines, Ont.) to the junior and senior national championships, and they're all peaking at the right time. They all showed a lot of improvement this weekend."
The Cascades brought the smallest roster to the CW championships, but they showed their quality right away, going 5-0 in their first dual vs. the host Calgary Dinos.
As for the UFV gold medalists, Atwal opened with an 11-2 decision vs. Calgary's John Fayad, and followed with a technical-superiority victory (16-6) over Saskatchewan's Micah Heide. His finale was against the favoured Kent, who built an early lead, but Atwal rallied. Off a scramble, he trapped Kent on his back for the pin.
Bains crushed the competition at 100 kg, winning both of his matches – vs. Caglary's Steven Sheppard and Saskatchewan's Reid Smyth – by technical superiority, 10-0.
"Amar wrestled really well, didn't make any mistakes," Kooner said. "His offence is really good, his hand fighting is really good, he just had to have the confidence he can beat those guys.
"And Jason wasn't challenged too much at this tournament, but we'll see how it goes at U SPORTS."
Saskatchewan won the men's team title with 43 points, ahead of Alberta (38), Calgary (30) and UFV (20). In women's action, Calgary topped the field with 36 points to outdistance Sask (32), Alberta (22) and UFV (4).
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