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The Canadian Champion, Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - Al17 SPORTS SPORTS EDITOR: STEVE LeBLANC e-mail sIebIanc@haItonsearch.com Spartans reclaim OFSAA championship Moffat, Shermet golden as Drury wrestles teamn titie backfromn Hagersville Back on top. Re-estabshing themselves as the pre- mier wrestling contingent in the province, the E.C. Drury Spartans took back the OFSAA team title in Sarnia Thursday atternoon - secuning it for a sixth time in seven years with an overaîl 131-1 19 decision over defending champion Hagersville. While that point differential was widler than Drurys pre- vious three victories, head coach Larry Jaroslawski - Ontario's most accomplished bigh school wrestling instruc- tor - said this year's win was arguably the most hard-fought since the dynasty began in 2000. "We won it witb our depth and by cveryone lookîng abter their own busincss and not worryîng about îhings outof J a ro sla ws ki, whose Spartans-M have now cap- tured nine con- . secutive team- moel- thawn moeals - tw other school in OFSAA history Witb two- lime champion Gary Fenrier los- ing in the semîifinals and fellow medal bopeful Kevin lwasa- Madge missing a tnip to the top six, it looked as îhough Jaroslawski's troops would have to once again play second fiddle to Hagersville. But Drury eventually outdistanced ils chief nivals writh three out of four wins in-the finals - including gold-medal lriumphs by Alan Moffat and Kyle Shermet. The OFSAA vel- erans eacb went 5-0 over the three-day provincial meet and reached the top of the podium witb îough title wins. Upgrading last years bronze, I 7-year-old Moffat scored îwo pins and a couple of superiority victonies to make il to the 57.5-kilogram finals - then upstaged Tborolds Adam Bartlett witb one of bis trademark clutcb performances. 1 got behind him with about 20 seconds left and forced him out of bounds for the last point," recalled tbe I2th grad- er, who'd only surrendered îwo points en route to the gold- medal sbowdown and battled bard to avoid a seemingly-cer- tain pin to Bartlett in round one. It was a back-and-fortb match and it was pretty amazîng 10 win and secure the gold. That's been my goal for four years and to finally achieve it feels great. I was really focused this ycar and that was the big difference." Having a more difficult lime on the way t0 gold, I 8-year- old Shermet bad to rally from firsî-round losses in bis firsî GRAHAM PAINE/ CANADIAN CHAMPION FRUITS 0F THEIR LABOUR: Above, Spartans <from Ieft) Alan Moffat, Bobby F ilman and Kyle Shermet proudly display their indi- vidual OFSAA medals, while (inset lef) Drury s 13 member OFSAA contingent pose with the teamn championship banner and trophy. two matches. He'd then employ somne superb defence to blank both bis quarterfinal and semnifinal opponents before edgingjamie Buck of Ottawa 1-0, 3-2 for top spot among the 83-kg. combatanis. I shot in to grab tbe first point and basicallyjust wrestled smart the rest of the way," said the fiftb-year Spantan. Shermet's gold-medal win represen'ted the biggest improvement for any of Drurys OFSAA returnees - since bc'd finisbed fifth last year in Brampton. But bis champîonship viclory was bardly a sbocker, nol after some sensational efforts leading up to OFSAA. "The expectations were kind of bigb sînce I'd been wrestling well lately. l'm prcîîy cuphoric about tlîîs (OFSAA win), but at the same time lin not sure its completely sunk in yet." Rebounding from a narrow defeat in the quarterfinals, tbe Spartan youngster reeled off four straight wins - including a pin-faîl over Port Credils Kevin Gibson in the battie for bronze. That gave him bis Il th medal of the season and made him only the second Drury freshman to ever reacb the OFSAA podium. Wbile Ferriers fourîh place showing was no doubt disap- pointing for the îwo-time gold medalist, the fifth-year wrestler holds the distinction of being the only Spartan to finish top-six at OFSAA four years in a row lwasa-Madge and sophomore Blake Elliot cracked the top eigbt. lwasa-Madge lost a close tbree-round decision 10 even- tual champion Tommy Carroll of Heart Lake after two early wins, while Elliots 4-2 sbowing was a pleasant surprise for Drury and bodes well for bis future. Rounding out the Spartans' individual medal baul was Placing top-l2 were Mac Filîman and Cbris Flannîgan. rookie Bobby Filîman, wbo witb poise and tecbnical profi- Drurys OFSAA squad also included J.D. Davies, Matt ciency beyond bis years took bronze in the 41-kg. division. Ganpat, Ranhir Hans, Matt Mantin and jared Robb.