Francis Carter – The Concordian

Frédérique Rajotte, Francis Carter and Anthony Beauregard named athletes of the year

The Concordia Stingers wrapped up the 2017-18 athletic season with their annual awards gala on April 6 at the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall. The Stingers celebrated their successes this season, during which two teams won championships, and they were able to laugh about the not-so-good moments.

Sebastian Iaricci of the men’s rugby team made sure to bring their championship banner when accepting his award. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

The Stingers held a cocktail party before the gala for all its athletes, which created an energetic atmosphere in the auditorium.

“We don’t always get together, but we see each other [around the complex] and we’re happy,” said fifth-year rugby player Frédérique Rajotte after the event. “It’s a big camaraderie and it’s very special.”

Here’s a breakdown of how each team did this season, and which players won each team’s most valuable player (MVP) and rookie of the year (ROY) awards.

Women’s hockey

The women’s hockey team was the most successful team this year. They had a 14-4-2 record during the regular season, and went on to win the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) championship in March. They won the bronze medal at the U Sports national championship. A few of their players also picked up awards at the gala.

MVP: Claudia Dubois

ROY: Lidia Fillion, who also won the overall rookie of the year award.

President’s Academic Award: Alexandra Nikolidakis and Audrey-Anne Allard

Fittest Female Athlete: Melinda Prévost

Men’s hockey

The men’s hockey team didn’t share the same success as the women’s team, despite finishing the regular season with a 18-7-3 record. They won the bronze medal in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) conference, and athletics director D’Arcy Ryan told the crowd, “bronze is the new gold.”

MVP: Anthony Beauregard, who also won the Stingers male athlete of the year.

ROY: Carl Neill, also named Stingers male rookie of the year.

Men’s rugby

The men’s rugby team won Concordia’s other championship this season, also winning the RSEQ title. They had a perfect 9-0 season in provincial play, but lost both games at nationals. They were easily the rowdiest team at the awards gala, bouncing an oversized beach ball around.

MVP: Charles Debove

ROY: Sebastian Iaricci

Marvin Cooper Award for overcoming adversity: Moritz Wittmann

Ron Lapointe Award for leadership and community service: Andreas Krawczyk

Women’s rugby

The women’s rugby stars, Rajotte and Alex Tessier, stole the show. Rajotte was also the female athletic valedictorian, and she said some of the smaller teams like wrestling, golf and cross-country deserve praise too. “I don’t think we talk about many of the teams, like wrestling that kill it every year, and deserve that recognition,” Rajotte said. “All those teams need to be recognized even if they’re not the main face of social media.”

MVP: Rajotte, also named as Stingers female athlete of the year.

ROY: Shawna Brayton

Michael Di Grappa Award for senior distinction: Alex Tessier

Wrestling

The wrestling team often goes unnoticed when compared to other Stingers teams. Head coach Victor Zilberman’s squad picked up major hardware this season, and continued to do so at awards night. At nationals, the team finished in second place.

MVPs: Jade Dufour and Francis Carter. Carter was also named male athlete of the year alongside Beauregard, and earned the President’s Academic Award.

ROYs: Laurence Beauregard and Alex Moore

Michael Di Grappa Award for senior distinction: Vincent De Marinis

Soccer

Simon Malaborsa of the men’s team picked up the MVP and ROY of the year honours. Olivier Georges was the male athlete valedictorian. The women’s team also collected a few distinctions. Chama Sedki’s long-distance goal in a September game was voted by the athletes as the play of the year.

MVP: Chama Sedki

ROY: Imane Chebel

Denise Beaudet Award for leadership and community service: Laura Lamontagne

After the event, men’s hockey defenceman Neill said all the athletes are part of the Stingers family.

“It’s fun to recognize all the teams at once, and all the teams appreciate the other teams,” Neill said. “You saw when we played [in the playoffs] against McGill, every team was present, and we support other teams too.”

Other Teams

Football

MVP: Mickael Côté, also named fittest male athlete.

ROY: Khadeem Pierre

Basketball

MVPs: Ken Beaulieu and Caroline Task

ROYs: Anthony Sonogo and Coralie Dumont. Dumont was also named a Stingers rookie of the year.

Baseball

MVP: Stefan Brady

ROY: Kyle Hazel

Cross-country

MVPs: Gabrielle Boyer-Antoni and Rikirogo Shinozuka

ROYs: Brittany Jackson and Ben Daurodovicious

Golf

MVPs: Ali Koury and Warren Sellors

ROYs: Maria Veronica Noriega and Ryan Mitchell

Main photo by Alex Hutchins.

Francis Carter named U Sports’s Most Outstanding Wrestler

The Concordia Stingers brought home nine medals from the U Sports national wrestling championship in Sault Ste-Marie, Ont., during the two-day tournament on Feb. 23 and 24.

The Stingers finished second in the team results, scoring 91 points. This was a significant improvement for the squad, which finished in fifth at last year’s nationals. The tournament was marked by gritty performances, but perhaps none as exciting as Francis Carter, who took home a gold medal in the 68-kilogram division.

Prior to his gold medal match, Carter only gave up two points in three matches. This was his third trip to the U Sports national wrestling championship. In 2016, Carter finished in fifth place. In 2017, he finished in fourth.

“I personally wanted to focus on relaxing mentally so that I could develop my tactical thinking during my matches,” Carter said about his preparation for this year’s nationals. “After [the past] results, there were no stressful expectations on me, which let me focus better on how I wanted to wrestle.”

The Concordia Stingers 2017-18 wrestling team. Photo by Liam Mahoney.

In the round robin, Carter defeated Bryce Davis from the Algoma Thunderbirds 10-0, Nathen Schmidt of the Regina Cougars 10-0, and Miles Kent from the University of Alberta Golden Bears 13-2. In the gold medal match, Carter wrestled against the Brock Badgers’s Matt Jagas, the defending title holder. The result was a 3-2 nail-biter in favour of Carter.

“I walked in knowing that my opponent had the pressure since he was wrestling to keep the title that he won last year. That gave me confidence because I had no expectations, and was instead concentrating on how I could wrestle,” Carter said. “I think that the way expectations affected the results of this tournament is something very useful to learn from.”

Carter went up 3-0 in the match, but Jagas managed to come back to bring it within one. With Jagas coming on strong, Carter grabbed Jagas’s leg to run out the clock. The leg attack allowed Carter to hold on for the first gold medal of his U Sports career.

This win drew praise from Stingers wrestling head coach Victor Zilberman.

“It was unexpected,” Zilberman said. “He’s a tough academic athlete in a very difficult program [psychology]. He set his goals and was mentally ready. He came out to every match and had some incredible performances.” Zilberman added that the gold medal match was “the toughest match of the tournament.”

Carter was named the U Sports’s Most Outstanding Wrestler.

On the women’s side, Jade Dufour, Laurence Beauregard and Amanda Savard all took home bronze medals.

Beauregard didn’t come to her first U Sports nationals with any expectations.

“This year, for me, was more about learning,” Beauregard said. “I wanted to go out there and fight hard and smart. [During the bronze medal match], I was losing at a certain point. I decided to take a couple of deep breaths and re-centre my focus on having quality attacks. This worked for me.”

Dufour knew the bronze medal match was do or die. “I was either going to be on the podium or in the stands. I did not want to be in the stands,” she said.

Vincent De Marinis and Jordan Steen also won gold medals. Samuel Barmish, Alex Moore, Frédérick Choquette and rookie Guseyn Ruslanzada all added bronze medals to the Stingers’s tally. This was the third gold medal in both De Marinis and Steen’s careers, with Steen winning in 2013 and 2016, and De Marinis winning in 2016 and 2017.

Even after three-straight title wins at the national championship, De Marinis said he doesn’t change his preparation His routine stays the same for every fight, no matter the opponent.

Fifth-year Stinger Vincent De Marinis won his third-straight gold medal. Photo courtesy of U Sports.

“I was proud of my individual performance. It’s my last year as a Stinger, so it meant a lot to me to finish my university career strong and get that last gold,” De Marinis said. “Overall, it was a great experience. I really enjoyed travelling with the team. This was the Stingers’s best team performance in my five years competing for the university.”

Zilberman was happy with the team’s performance, but disappointed that they fell short of the team title. The Brock Badgers won the national championship for the fifth year in a row, scoring 162 points, compared to the Stingers’s 91. The Stingers sent 15 wrestlers to compete in the tournament—its biggest-ever national championship squad. The Badgers sent 19 wrestlers.

“We had a great team. On a different day, in a different year, we would have won, but because we’re competing against schools like Brock who send so many athletes, that made the difference,” Zilberman said.

He added that, over the years, he has been trying to extend his recruiting. Many of Concordia’s wrestlers were groomed at the Montreal Wrestling Club, which is also run by Zilberman.

The Stingers wrestling team is already training for the Canadian Championship in Montreal from March 16 to 18. Zilberman is excited for his core group of wrestlers to compete, as well as showcase new recruits who will be making their Stingers debut, including Aly Barghout, a product of Zilberman’s Montreal Wrestling Club and former junior national champion.

De Marinis, Steen, Moore and assistant coach Rob Moore will all be representing Canada at the Commonwealth Games in Australia from April 4 to 15.

Main photo courtesy of U Sports.

RELATED