Wrestling with the enemy: Feng moves on to national championships
by Pete Cunningham
*As printed in The Varsity, 3/4/2004

Jimmy Feng is about to head where almost no man has gone before. Captain of the men's Varsity Blues wrestling team and third-year student, Feng is poised to become the first Blues wrestler to participate in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championships since coach Peter Brown actually had hair.

It was a grueling road, however, to get to the national level competition. Over reading week, while most students were catching up on sleep, work, drinking, or all of the above, Feng was training for the Ontario provincial (OUA) championships hosted Saturday, Feb. 21 at the University of Western Ontario.

Feng made the decision to drop from the 67 kg weight class to 61 kg. For those of you keeping score, that's dropping from about 147 pounds to 134 (and you thought your reading week was a bummer).

A formidable task, but nonetheless one which Feng would accomplish on his way to a third place finish and a berth in the CIS championships. After already establishing himself as a formidable contender at 65 kg earlier in the year, one might ask why Feng decided to put himself through such torture. "Wrestling's the kind of sport where any edge you can gain on your opponent can be the difference in the match. I just figured that if I lost the weight I would have a huge edge strength-wise," he said.

From the start, it didn't look like that "edge" was working out the way Feng had planned. After making the weight the previous Friday night, Feng got off to a rough start on Saturday morning. Drawing returning OUA champion Josiah Boyd of McMaster in the first round of pool action, Feng suffered a demoralizing loss to start off his day. "I tried not to let the loss get me down," he said. "I knew he was a good wrestler, and just focused on what still needed to be done instead of dwelling on what couldn't be changed." Knowing that the worst was behind him already, Feng refocused his energy and was a force to be reckoned with for the rest of the tournament.

Feng won his next match with relative ease, delivering two devastating throws to his Brock opponent on his way to an eventual pin. Coming out of his three-man pool in second place, Feng had to win his crossover match for third and fourth in order to qualify for the CIS championships.

In a strange twist of fate, Feng would first face an opponent from Lakehead who had beaten him just three weeks previous in that very same gym at the Western Open. "It was a close match the time before, so it's not like I ever saw it as impossible. It's almost like I had an advantage because I had nothing to lose. Earlier in the year I had a few matches against guys who I had beaten earlier in the same day and lost both times! For whatever reason it just seems harder to beat a guy that second time around."

From the looks of the rematch, you never would have guessed that the first one was even close, let alone in the other wrestler's favour. From the very beginning of the match it was apparent that Jimmy was not going to let his previous defeat affect his approach. After scoring multiple takedown and back points with his signature front headlock, Feng secured his place at the CIS championships with a 13-5 victory over his Lakehead counterpart.

Even though Feng is known to be rather mild-mannered, not even he could remain calm after his milestone victory. Embracing teammates and grinning from ear to ear, it was clear that all the hard work and sacrifice had been worth it. "It was awesome, just indescribable," he said.

Don't break out the champagne bottles yet though, because Feng's fortune isn't sealed. He will be competing on March 5th and 6th at Brock University for the highly coveted and sought after CIS title. If you see him on campus, offer Feng congratulations and good luck, but if he asks, don't let him have a bite of your pizza-he's got weight to lose.