Alumni Stories
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Smith and Kippenhuck finish eighth at CIS
Both competing in their first CIS Championships, Matt Kippenhuck and Jon Smith represented one of two AUS teams to qualify for nationals in Calgary over the weekend. Taking to the mat against the top seeded competitors in their respective weight classes, Smith and Kippenhuck would be in tough early against the best wrestlers in the country.
Action began early Friday afternoon, with the opening matches
having Kippenhuck, a Charlottetown, Labrador native, pitted against
the eventual victor Ryan Blake of McMaster by the score of 4-0. Jon
Smith also had an early match up versus Ali Al-Rekabi of the
eventual champion Simon Fraser University by a score of 5-0.
Second round matches would take place later in the day as both
Memorial competitors facing the loser of the second and third seed
bracket in their respective weight classes. The struggles would
continue as Kippenhuck was defeated 5-0 by Scott Christian,
representing the eventual fourth place Lakehead. Smith would also
be handed a tough loss in the second match of the day to the tune
of 5-0 by Daniel Nwaerondu of Calgary.
In the overall placement matches of the tournament, Kippenhuck
would drop his final meeting against Gaelan Malloy of Regina 5-0.
Jon Smith finished off his matches in the 130kg category taking on
Preston Mikulasik, who would defeat the Memorial representative by
another score of 5-0.
It was definitely a learning experience for the two young Sea~Hawks
grapplers, who couldn’t come out with a win on the weekend.
Both Memorial wrestlers would finish eighth in their respective
weight classes but took home the knowledge of the effort needed to
pull out a victory on the national level.