Archives 2006

Terri McNutt wins her way to Gold in a Spectacular five point wrestling throw
SOURCE: http://www.wrestling.ca/news/article.php?id=713
London, Ontario, CANADA - Monday, January 23, 2006
Terri McNutt of UWO (University of Western Ontario) won the prestigious Guelph Open on Saturday, January 21, pinning SFU (Simon Fraser University) rival, Sarah White in the 51 kg women’s final in front of some 500 spectators. The mustang women's 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 UWO head coach Ray Takahashi. "Terri’s a pinner and knows how to capitalize on the opportunity."
McNutt, a graduate nursing student in her final year of eligibility has met White many times over the past few years. McNutt defeated White for the bronze medal at the 2005 CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) championships, but lost to White the gold in the CIS final in 2004. This time it was quite different matter, McNutt tied up White and waited for an attack. "She locked up with me and tried to throw me," said McNutt, "that gave me the opportunity to counter and use my attack."
The Guelph Open Tournament is considered to be the most competitive on the Canadian national domestic schedule as it is used to acquire national team carding points for wrestlers that wish to be on the Canadian National Wrestling Team. Included in this years Guelph Open competition were top teams from across Canada and a number of teams from USA, including the wrestlers from New York Athletic Club. This was one of toughest and most competitive tournaments thus far this wrestling season.
McNutt, earned her way to the finals by beating former Western (UWO) star, Belinda Chou, now of Guelph W.C., also by the same head and arm throw to a pinning hold. "Terri knew her strategy was to control
Belinda with tie-ups to take away her leg attacks," said coach Takahashi.
In a preliminary match, McNutt threw a spectacular 5-point back-salto throw over Constance Tweedie (Halifax Metro W.C.) to win the match. This was the only 5 point throw in women's wrestling and was appreciated by the thunderous applause from the spectators. McNutt did the similar throw at the 2005 Canadian National Wrestling Championships. " Terri is one of the few women in North America that can execute this type of a throw ( back salto) " stated Josip Mrkoci , UWO Assistant wrestling coach.
The UWO mustang women placed second overall in team standings. Brock University took the team tittle. Mustang teammate and first year standout, Kirby Steinhoff, took silver at 72 kg losing to Brock’s Jocelyn Dresser who won the 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 (120 kg) also recorded match wins for the men's mustangs.
The UWO women's and men's teams will be on the road Jan 27-29 when they compete in the Ontario Junior Provincial Championships in the city of Ottawa (National Capital) and the Queen’s Open at the Queen's University campus in Kingston. "The junior competition for men and women wrestlers will be an important tournament for our younger team members," remarked Assistant Coach, Josip Mrkoci. "We will use the results of the competition to select our team to the Canadian Junior Nationals scheduled in Fredericton, New Brunswick in mid-March."
The mustangs men and women will host the - Western Open Tournament - at Alumni Hall, Saturday February 4, covered by Rogers Television and be shown across the Province of Ontario. "It should be an excellent event," says Takahashi. We will have all OUA (Ontario University Athletics) teams attending as well as out-of-province teams and a few from the USA. We’ve already received women team confirmations from USA, Kentucky and Missouri." The information regarding the WESTERN OPEN can be obtained via the Internet on the UWO wrestling team web site - http://groups.msn.com/UWO-Wrestling .

Tough Nutt to crack
Western wrestler Terri McNutt hasn't lost to an Ontario University Athletics opponent in four years.
By JIM CRESSMAN -Feb 2,2006 - London Free Press - http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/CIS/2006/02/02/1422800-sun.html
The slogan "take no prisoners" could be pinned on Terri McNutt.
The native of Joyceville -- home of a medium security prison -- has done just that during her five years of university wrestling with the Western Mustangs.
The 23-year-old graduate nursing student has not lost to an Ontario University Athletics opponent in four years. She's won three straight OUA championships in the 55-kilogram class, with a bronze medal at the 2005 Canadian championships and a silver the year before.
"People find it interesting when they find out you wrestle, but people in general don't understand this wrestling, they think you do WWE," McNutt said yesterday as the Mustangs prepared for the annual Western Open on Saturday at Alumni Hall.
With a background in martial arts as a youngster, she got into wrestling in Grade 9.
"The school offered women's wrestling and there's a lot that's related to martial arts -- the individual aspect and the competition part of it and knowing everything that happens stems from how hard you work, instead of relying on other people."
She's done well. Besides her success with Western, she's also been involved with the national team, winning a bronze medal at the 2003 Commonwealth championships in London.
At Christmas, she trained with the national team at a U.S. Olympic training centre near San Diego.
"We had some friendly matches against U.S. wrestlers. We don't have anything like that up here, unfortunately. It was good training," McNutt said.
Mustangs coach Ray Takahashi, in his 20th year after wrestling for Western and a three-time Olympian, said McNutt has the perfect makeup to be an international competitor.
"She doesn't like to lose," he said. "One of her best qualities is she has a really good head for wrestling. She has a good upper body and she likes to throw and she knows how to pin, so she can win.
"Terri graduates this year, but her plan is to continue and be part of the national program because in wrestling, your peaking age is the late 20s.
"If you really want to reach your potential, you have to stay in it. We've got to get her more international meets."
Takahashi said women's wrestling took off in the late 1980s when the Canadian Wrestling Association made a commitment to the program.
"Canada is one of the most pro-active nations," he said. "We're top four in the world in women's wrestling.
"We treat them the same, they work out with us in practice and that's why women's wrestling is the quality it is. In some ways they're more technical and many of them are very aggressive."
McNutt, who has dropped to the 51-kilo class this year, enjoys training with the men.
"Some of the smaller guys are good training partners. Ray is good to train with, too. It's nice to have a coach who's my size. Sometimes with the conflicts I have with school and work, I'll come in and practice with him early."
McNutt commutes from Brantford, where she lives with her boyfriend of five years, Victor McLean. He's a firefighter in Oakville.
"He's a hockey player. He's an athlete, so can understand what it's about," she said.
The Western Open, which begins at 9:30 a.m., is attracting competitors from Brock, Guelph, McMaster, Toronto, Queen's, Lakehead, Concordia, McGill and the University of New Brunswick, as well as top-calibre U.S. women's club teams from Kentucky and Missouri.
The OUA championships are Feb. 18 at Lakehead in Thunder Bay, with the CIS championships March 5-6 at Brock in St. Catharines.
McNutt will then attend the Canadian Wrestling Association championships in May, where placements will determine national team berths.
She hopes to do a lot of international wrestling.
"I've got a few years ahead of me. I've got to do a lot of training, but I still have some time."

Terri McNutt strikes gold at CIS wrestling championship
Release: 03/04/2006 SOURCE:http://www.westernmustangs.ca/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=31951&SPID=2572&DB_OEM_ID=6000&ATCLID=245238
Terri McNutt countered a throw attempt by Sarah White of Simon Fraser in the first round and secured a pinning hold to win the 51 kg final at the CIS wrestling championship Saturday at Brock University.
McNutt caps off a stellar university career with three CIS medals and four individual gold medals in OUA competition.
Coach Ray Takahashi says, "Terri worked hard for this and it's so nice to see her end her five years at Western with the CIS gold."
The Mustangs also nabbed two fourth place finishes with Jill McCallum falling to Lakehead’s Tasha Eady while men's teammate Keenan Miller lost to Alberta's Jarret Wall at 72 kg, both losing by point decision.
The Mustang women placed fifth overall behind defending champions Simon Fraser, followed by Calgary, Brock and Saskatchewan.
The men’s team failed to crack the top ten, with Brock defending its title over second place Concordia.
Fifth place finishers for Western were Jeff Werden (54 kg), Vi Nguyen-Huu (82 kg), Jennifer Nguyen (55 kg) and Lauren MacDonald (82 kg).

’Stangs rake in the hardware at Athletic Banquet - Andy Fantuz, Terri McNutt earns Athlete of the Year honours
By Malcolm Aboud and Stephanie Ramsay
Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - http://www.gazette.uwo.ca/article.cfm?section=Sports&articleID=635
WHAT DO YOU THINK HER ENTRANCE MUSIC SHOULD BE? Wrestler Terri McNutt earned the F.W.P. Jones Trophy as Western’s female athelte of the year at last week’s athletic banquet.
Last week, Western’s varsity athletes traded their jerseys and shoulder pads for suits, ties and cocktail dresses.
Western’s annual Athletics Banquet, which serves as a yearly celebration of the Mustangs’ accomplishments, featured the presentation of the school’s major awards.
Team MVPs were honoured, but the biggest accolades went to Purple Blanket winners and Western male and female athletes of the year.
Football star Andy Fantuz capped off a record-setting career by taking home the Dr. Claude Brown Memorial Trophy as the year’s top male athlete.
Widely expected to be the first overall pick in this year’s Canadian Football League draft, Fantuz leaves Western with a handful of Canadian Interuniversity Sport records, including career touchdowns by a wide receiver.
“It feels great; I’m glad to have the end of my career be like this,” Fantuz said. “With all my friends, teammates and coaches here in front of everybody, it’s really exciting.”
The F.W.P. Jones Trophy for Western’s top female athlete went to wrestler Terri McNutt — also no surprise since she captured the individual gold at the CIS championships this season.
“It’s very exciting,” McNutt said. “I’m very honoured.”
Though she has finished her final year of eligibility at university, McNutt will continue to wrestle in the future.
“It’s bittersweet,” she said, “but I’m going to keep competing.”
Fantuz graduates this year and plans to “just train and try out for a team.”
Also presented were this year’s Purple Blankets, career achievement awards presented to graduating athletes who have “achieved superior distinction at the provincial and national levels of competition as representatives at Western.”
“[The Purple Blanket] is one of those things that you see people get every year,” said rugger Dan Polakoff. “You just hope that when you graduate maybe there’s a chance [you’ll get it].”
This year’s winners included Fantuz and Polakoff, as well as track star Alanna Boudreau, men’s hockey captain Jamie Chamberlain, ruggers Sam Jenkins and Barbara Mervin, rower Lindsay Forget, basketballer Julie Lamparski and soccer star Paul Speakman.
McNutt received her Purple Blanket in 2005.
“It’s pretty awesome,” Boudreau said afterwards. “I was pretty happy about it.”
“I’m pretty honoured,” Lamparski said. “I always used to look at pictures of the Purple Blanket winners and hoped to win one.”
Many athletes stressed the respect they had for the other award winners.
“It’s a great honour for anybody to pull home a Purple Blanket,” Chamberlain said. “[The winners] have all had outstanding careers, academic and athletic, so congratulations.”
“These are some pretty special people,” said Sports and Recreation director Michael Lysko. “They’ve accomplished so much individually and especially as a team, and when you look at the type and quality of the student-athletes we have here, the people who win these awards really represent the cream of the crop.”
“I’ve been watching these guys play and hearing about them, but I haven’t really gotten a chance to meet everybody,” Fantuz said. “Seeing everybody here tonight, they all deserve it and my hat goes off to them.”
After dinner and the awards presentation, the bar re-opened and the stage area was converted into a dance floor. It seemed unanimous that the night was a success.
“I thought it was a great atmosphere,” Lysko said. “Everyone had a lot of fun, and it’s a night for recognition for athletes and camaraderie.”
“It was really fun,” Boudreau said. “It’s one of the better banquets we’ve had in a while.”
Some of the athletes enjoyed the casual atmosphere compared to years past.
“From what I hear, it’s a lot less rowdy than usual,” Fantuz said. “But everyone seems to be having a good time, and it’s good to get together with all the teams like this.”