The Matmen Wrestling Club, which calls Mississauga’s Kombat Arts home (it also has satellite locations in Brampton and Kitchener), placed second in both the boys’ and girls’ standings and first all-around, with 26 medals.
“We expected big things, but no one (else) saw it coming,” said Matmen head coach Greg Cappuccitti, who took 39 of his athletes to the provincial tournament.
Taking on 600 athletes from 24 other clubs, including perennial powerhouses Team Impact from Oshawa and the Junior Marauders from Hamilton, the Matmen floored the competition — literally.
“Every year, over the last three years, we’ve been doubling our medals,” said the 34-year-old Cappuccitti, a graduate of Erindale Secondary School. “We’ve been building and building with eight and then nine medals, and this year we had 15 (competitors) in the finals alone, more than doubling last year.”
Cappuccitti says the reason behind the success is simple — both the quantity and quality of the club’s membership.
“All the work is starting to pay off,” he said. “We have 50 (registered) in our kids program, who then feed our older program, which again has about 50 wrestlers.”
There were four divisions up for grabs, including Cadet boys and girls (15-16 years) and Juvenile boys and girls (17-18 years).
The Matmen won the overall boys' Cadet division, more than tripling last year’s point production, when the club placed third.
The Matmen also placed second in the boys' Juvenile class after placing third last year.
On the girls’ side, the Matmen placed second in Cadet after finishing 12th last year, and fifth in Juvenile.
The list of gold medalists includes Dylan Williams (57kg Cadet boys), Jade Papke (49kg Cadet girls) and DJ Webb (66kg Cadet boys).
For Williams, a student at Meadowvale Secondary School, it was his second consecutive provincial gold medal.
Papke, a Port Credit Secondary School student, moved up two slots to gold this year, after capturing bronze last year.
Shekhar Saxena (69kg Juvenile boys) of The Woodlands Secondary School won bronze.
Webb led a contingent of pleasant surprises for the Matmen. After failing to place last year, the Port Credit student struck gold this time.
Graydon’s Jake Severin captured silver in the 80kg Juvenile category and Port Credit’s Brianne Meehan and John Fraser's Rachna Kumar were fifth in their respective divisions.
Making her debut at the provincials, Port Credit’s Lucy Yordanou returned with a bronze in the Juvenile girls' 65kg weight class.
dwiner@mississauga.net
