HAMILTON, Ont. — After falling just short in team points last year, the McMaster wrestling teams have their sights set on gold at this year's OUA Championships hosted by Algoma on February 8th. For the last three years, the men's and women's wrestling teams have secured the team silver medal at the OUA Championships.
The Marauders are feeling strong heading into championship season, and gold looks to be within grasp. "They haven't even seen the best of us yet. This team has been putting in the work all season, and the OUA Wrestling Championships are our chance to prove it. We're ready to step up, wrestle hard, and show everyone what the Marauders bring to the mat," says Coach Ahmed Shamiya.
The Marauders opened the season at home taking first place overall with a team score of 73. The women's team took home gold as well, with a stellar performance earning three gold medals, two silver and two bronze medals in their opening matches.
Third year Marauder, Olivia Lichti (New Hamburg, Ont.) won gold in the 62 kg weight class. Tehani Blais (Winnipeg, Man.) earned gold in the 68 kg class and first-year, Jennifer De Medeiros (Hamilton, Ont.) earned gold in the 90 kg weight class.
Senuki Desanayaka (Brampton, Ont.), and Macy Malysiak (Brampton, Ont.) earned silver medals for the Marauders and Mayumi King and Megann Nkenglack (Barrie, Ont.) came away with bronze for the Marauders.
The men's team also took home some hardware with Sarpartap Lally (Brampton, Ont.) earning a silver medal and Luken Lawson (Enfield, N.S.) and Irman Kang (Caledon, Ont.) bringing home bronze.
In November, the Marauders would make three stops in Toronto to compete at the TMU, York, and the University of Toronto Opens. At the TMU open, the Marauders earned third place overall and would add more medals to their collection with Desanayaka and Nkenglack both brought home gold medals. King also made the podium with a third place finish. The Marauder men earned a couple more medals themselves as well, finishing the day with another silver and bronze from Kang and Tin Dao (Surrey, B.C). At York, the Marauder women earned two medals on the day adding a bronze from Desanayaka and a silver for Nkenglack in the 83 kg class. One the men's side, Lally, earned a second-place finish.
To wrap up the Toronto takeover the Marauders finished third overall at the University of Toronto Open. Blayne Helou (Pickering, Ont.) picked up first place in the men's 65 kg weight class along with four Marauder women earning podium spots.
Serena Di Benedetto (Hamilton, Ont.) and Lichti both stood atop the podium with Malysiak finishing third in the women's 65 kg weight class and Blais taking home silver in the women's 68 kg category.
At the Brock Open, McMaster earned five first place finishes from Di Benedetto, Desanayaka, Malysiak, Lichti, and Vanessa Fonrose (Brampton, Ont.). Later in January, at the Guelph Open, Di Benedetto took home yet another gold and Dasanayaka and Lichti earned bronze.
To finish off the regular season at the Western Open the Marauders had Dao finish second in the men's 57 kg class, and Lawson finish on the podium for the Marauders as well, grabbing third in the men's 76 kg class.
Marauders to watch:
Honours Life Science major, Macy Malysiak is in her fourth year of eligibility and has previously competed in three OUA Championships, this will be her fourth. Macy is a dedicated and valued member of the wrestling team being one of the team captains. She is a dominant, sportsmanlike, and talented McMaster athlete. She has had an extremely successful season so far. This year she also competed and won in an international tournament called the Bill Farrell Tournament in New York City. In her previous OUA's she has won one silver, and two gold's including her first place finish last season.
Second year mechanical engineering major, Blayne Helou has previously competed in one OUA Championship, this will be his second. With his speed and constant commitment to the sport, he has made significant strides. Blayne is a two time Junior National Champion and a Senior National Champion. This season, Blayne has been dominate in his weight class, including going up a weight class at the U of T open, winning gold, and then being featured on CHCH News. Over the summer, he also represented Team Canada at Pan-ams and Worlds and came home with the bronze medal.
