The Knights came marching out of the B.C. high school wrestling championships with all three aggregate banners.
St. Thomas More won its first-ever B.C. high school provincial wrestling banner, with 142 total points far outdistancing runner-up W.J. Mouat with 72 aggregate points. Alberni District was third overall with 53 points.
STM also won the first boys’ banner 69-53 over Mouat and the girls’ title 73-44 over Port Moody after year’s of placing runner-up.
The beauty of it all was even though we had a lot of great performances, we could have had more,” said STM coach Doug Corbett.
The Knights had three individual champions and placed seven wrestlers in the finals, including defending national champion and the provincial's most outstanding wrestler Darthe Cappelan at 57 kilograms.
Massimo Pozzolo topped the 66-kg division, where teammate Nathan Punzo also placed fourth.
Nicole Depa won the lone girls’ individual title for STM, dominating at 57kg. Alina Mercado placed fourth in the weight class.
Other top-six podium finishers for STM included: runner-up Stefano Pozzolo at 38kg and bronze medallist Eric Bauer at 70kg.
Kevin Marshall placed fourth at 90kg, Rafal Posypanko came fifth at 110kg and Daniel Alphonso was sixth at 45kg.
On the girls’ mat, Caileen and Ciara Corbett both earned silver medals at 40 and 51kg, respectively.
Livleen Sidhu also placed second at 64kg, while Anna Benevoli won bronze at 69kg.
Meagan Chow and Taylor McIntosh placed fourth and fifth in their respective weight classes, rounding out the 17 STM wrestlers to make it onto the podium.
“Last year, the best boys’ result was third, but to win everything – the triple crown – was amazing,” said Corbett. “It’s only been done once before.”
Burnaby South wrestlers picked up a pair of medals. Safi Sharar placed second in the boys’ 60kg, while Jimmy Sidhu earned a third-place medal at 110kg.
Burnaby North’s Chelsea Coombes finished in fourth place in the girls’ 54kg division.
