ST. CATHARINES, Ont. - The McMaster wrestling team traveled to St. Catharines for the first competition of 2024 – the Brock Open and continued this season's successes, returning home with four gold medals.
Gregor McNeil, a second year from North York was unstoppable on Saturday. He won his opening two matches by technical fall before securing a spot in the gold medal match with a 10-6 decision over a competitor from the Brock Wrestling Club. He finished out the day picking up a 16-4 win over a member of the TMU Bold, going undefeated to secure the gold medal in the 68kg class.
Teammate, Julian Kato, dropped his quarterfinal match in the same category but was dominant through the consolation round to earn his spot in the bronze medal match. He defeated a Guelph Gryphons by technical fall to land on the podium.
A second year on the Marauders wrestling team,
Irman Kang was impressive in St. Catharines. The Caledon, Ont. local opened the day with a technical fall win over a CLIC wrestler before winning each of his ensuing matches by technical fall over competitors from Algoma, Brock and Lakehead, enroute to the gold medal in the 82kg class. The Humanities student went undefeated, and only conceded four points in his four matches to secure his first gold medal of the 2023-24 campaign.
Howard Moffatt had a strong performance on Saturday. The fifth-year biology student opened Round 1 of competition with a bye and then picked up two wins against competitors from Western and Guelph before falling to a Montreal NTC wrestler in the semifinal. Moffatt rebounded picking up two straight wins to pick up the bronze medal.
The Marauder men finished in 3
rd place with 34.0 points behind the Brock Badgers (50.0) and Guelph Gryphons (43.0).
On the women's side, Winnipeg local,
Tehani Blais, convincingly won each of her three matches in the 72kg class to secure the gold medal. Throughout the rounds, Blais outscored her opponents 68-3, earning her second top place finish of the season.
Vanessa Fonrose, a fourth year Human Behaviour student from Brampton also topped the podium on Saturday. After decisively taking the quarterfinal and semifinal matches in the 83kg category, Fonrose battled it out with an Algoma Thunderbird and despite an 8-8 score, won by decision to earn the gold medal.
A second year Hamilton local,
Serena Di Benedetto defeated each of her varsity opponents from the Guelph Gryphons, Brock Badgers and Guelph Gryphons but came up just short in Round 3 when a decision went the way of a competitor from the Victoria School of Wrestling. Di Benedetto cemented herself as the top varsity wrestler in the 53kg class and returned home with a silver medal.
The women ended the competition in second spot behind the Brock Badgers.
Next Up
With the OUA Championships less than a month away, the nationally-ranked Marauders will head to the Guelph Open next weekend before closing out the invitational season at the Ontario Junior Open and Western Open at the end of January.
