By Stephanie Ramsay
Mustang Terri McNutt won a bronze medal at last week’s Senior National Wrestling Championships in Saskatoon, defeating Guelph’s Belinda Chou in the 51 kg weight class.
McNutt, a graduate nursing student at Western and this year’s recipient of the Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year award, beat Chou in the third round using a head-and-arm throw.
Although McNutt had already beaten her in the preliminaries, Chou, a former Mustang and teammate of McNutt, advanced through the consolation bracket while McNutt lost in the semifinal to 2004 Olympian Lindsay Belisle.
“Terri’s matches against Belinda [Chou] were hard fought,” said coach Ray Takahashi. “Belinda is a very solid technical wrestler and controlled a good part of the match, but Terri is very tough mentally and was able to pressure Belinda and force her in the tie-up.”
McNutt is no stranger to bringing in the hardware; earlier this year, she captured gold at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championships.
“I’m hoping they select her to compete in the Gotzis Women’s International meet in Austria or she qualifies for the world student championships in Mongolia,” Takahashi said.
McNutt was not the only Mustang competing at the event; she was joined by teammates Jennifer Nguyen, Katrina Huszarik, Lindsay Rebernik, Jessica Fitzgerald and LaToya Blackwood.
Fitzgerald placed fifth in the 67 kg, defeating the University of New Brunswick’s Marcia Chiasson in two rounds, while Jenn Nguyen (55 kg) placed sixth, losing to Jillian Gallays via pin.
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