Banner Season: Brock looks to wrestle championship glory from the pack once again in quest to bolster banner haul
Guelph, Ont. – The Brock Badgers have boasted plenty of banner season bests over the last half decade, but with a total 11 ranked teams (W = 6; M = 5) hitting the mats for the winter semester’s banner season opener, the St. Catharines squad will see their fair share of challenges for the 2020 crowns. Wrestling away the titles won’t be easy, but the 10 schools heading to Guelph for Saturday’s OUA championships will each look to put their best foot forward against the province’s elite.
2020 OUA Wrestling Championships Fan Guide
Brock has been the epitome of consistency over the last five years, and they’ll once again enter championship weekend as the highest ranked OUA teams in the nation. The top-seeded women will see their team led by Hannah Taylor, who has known nothing but success on the province’s biggest stage. Now competing in her fourth OUA final and entering as the reigning Outstanding Female Wrestler, the Cornwall, P.E.I. native has her sights set on the four-peat in the 56kg weight class, while the women’s group as a whole is searching for their sixth consecutive title.
Despite the success, Taylor understands that nothing can be taken for granted in her fourth season, especially as she has established herself as one of the best in the business. “The thing about wrestling is that every match will be a fight, especially at important tournaments where everyone is bringing their A-game. Heading into OUA’s, I am not really an underdog. Now that I have climbed the ranks nationally, and internationally, there is a target on my back which makes the tournament all the more challenging, but also rewarding.”
On the men’s side, fellow senior Clayton Pye will anchor the No. 3 Badgers into the weekend’s action and will do so on the heels of a decorated championship career as well. With a pair of medals already in tow, the Ingersoll, Ont. native is part of a group that is confident they can capture a fifth straight banner for the St. Catharines squad; a notion that head coach Marty Calder mirrors for both Brock teams.
“We feel good about our preparation heading into the most exciting part of our season,” said the reigning OUA Coach of the Year on both the women’s and men’s circuit. “We have some new faces in our lineup, as well as some veterans who have proven they are contenders for a championship. It will be interesting to see how we embrace the challenge this weekend.”
Like the perennial powerhouses from Brock, another three schools will bring a pair of ranked teams to this weekend’s festivities, including the host Guelph Gryphons.
Among those to keep an eye on for the reigning silver medalists on the women’s side is Hannah Little. The Shelburne, Ont. native took home the win in at the Guelph Open earlier this year (55kg) and is coming off a fourth-place result at the U SPORTS finale in 2019. Little will be an important piece to Guelph’s championship puzzle, especially when going up against another five ranked teams this weekend.
On the men’s side, a trio of standouts will be eyeing an improvement on the Guelph’s most recent fifth-place finish. Alexander Chaves (Guelph, Ont.) is back for his final season with the Gryphons and returns as the reigning U SPORTS champion in the 72kg. Two-sport athlete Job Reinhart (Guelph, Ont.) also returns to the mats after earning team MVP honours for Guelph’s football team as a middle linebacker. The fifth-year senior was named the OUA’s Most Outstanding Wrestler at the 2018 event where he won gold in the 100kg and he followed that up with a national bronze medal a year ago. Kyle Robinson, meanwhile, is back after a two-year hiatus due to injury. In his rookie campaign, the Georgetown, Ont. native claimed an OUA silver in the 57kg and will be one of many medal hopefuls suiting up for the No. 5 ranked hosts on Saturday.
The Western Mustangs will bring their two seventh-ranked squads to the mats this weekend, with each side aspiring to take a step up onto the podium after their respective fourth-place finishes a year ago. The team’s coach, Scott Proctor, is confident that the work his teams have put in this season can lead to just that. “We have a balanced mix of veterans and rookies on our team. We have been working on solid fundamentals all year and have seen consistent improvements throughout the season and are looking to place both teams on the podium.”
A spot among the conference’s top teams would be nothing new for the Mustangs’ men, who have captured 18 OUA titles over their decorated history, and they’ll turn to Brayden Ambo to help lead them to another for the first time since 2013.
Ambo, a fourth-year wrestler, has medaled at the previous three OUA championships, entering as a reigning provincial silver medalist and national bronze medalist. The Tillsonburg, Ont. native also placed second at the Olympic trials in Greco-Roman at 77kg and is the Olympic Alternate. Not only is Western sending a full men’s team to complement Ambo, but the same on the women’s side, albeit with a younger wrestler at the forefront.
Jennifer Nwamadi (Brampton, Ont.) is a second-year Mustang who placed fourth at the conference championship in her debut campaign. In four tournaments this season, Nwamadi has medaled in each and enters as a definite contender this weekend; something that would go a long way for a team that missed last year’s overall podium by just three points.
While the Mustangs fell just shy of last year’s podiums, the Lakehead Thunderwolves staked their claim to a pair of bronze medal results in 2019, which they will look to repeat (or better) this weekend. They’ll have a pair of decorated wrestlers powering their chances, including one who has made herself at home on the podium this season and another who has topped the talented pack before at both the provincial and national level.
Madison Clayton (Thunder Bay, Ont.) enters banner season having medaled in the last five tournaments she’s entered, including the Canada Cup, McMaster Invitational, and the York, Brock, and Guelph Opens. If that’s not enough momentum, the fourth-year standout, who is also one of Lakehead Wrestling Club’s Wolf Pup coaches, is the 63kg gold medalist from 2019.
Like Clayton, Marco Palermo has wrestled his way to top spot in past championships, entering the 2020 festivities as a two-time OUA and U SPORTS champion. The Thunder Bay, Ont. native’s accolades don’t stop there; however, as Lakehead University’s 2018-19 Male Athlete of the Year has also represented Canada at the Junior Pan Am Championships and the U23 World Championships.
The fifth and final OUA squad who has claimed a spot in the men’s Top 10 is the Algoma Thunderbirds, who are looking to turn some heads in their trip to Guelph. One individual that thinks they can is head coach Trevor Manchester, who says that “this season has been a great success for our small Thunderbirds team”. And with standouts like Bryce Davis (Fenton, MI) and Kyle Price (Timmins, Ont.) at the forefront, it is easy to understand why the Algoma coach has “high expectations for our teams and [is] hoping to send the majority of our wrestlers to Brock for the U SPORTS Championships”.
Davis is a decorated member of the T’Birds arsenal, entering the weekend as the No. 1 ranked 68kg wrestler. Earlier in the season, the former Michigan State freestyle and Greco runner up was also ranked first at 72kg. Certainly, with a pedigree like that, Davis has his sights set on a podium finish, and with the team as a whole is eyeing multiple medals, Price will be another one to watch on the mats. After a one-year break from competition, the first-year athlete is hoping to turn some heads in his banner season debut.
Algoma’s 10th-seeded counterparts on the women’s side, meanwhile, hail from York, as the Lions are looking for a strong showing from their nationally-ranked representatives.
Two significant reasons for Lions’ championship aspirations this season are sophomores Mary Adarkwa (Toronto, Ont.) and Bailey Agard (Ottawa, Ont.), both of whom were critical in the team’s Ontario Junior Provincial Championship title a week ago. The former finished fourth at the OUA Championships and fifth on the national stage in her first kick of the can last year, and with a gold medal result at the Ontario Junior event in tow, the second-year standout will be eyeing even more success in her return to the banner season mats. Agard will also be riding a wave of momentum into Guelph thanks to her individual gold a week ago and she will surely want to use that drive to help York improve on their eighth-place finish in 2019.
Sitting one spot above the Lions in the ranks are the Queen’s Gaels, who at No. 9, are seeded in Canada for the first time in school history. In fact, this is the third consecutive week that the Tricolour have earned a spot amongst the top 10, and after a sixth-place showing last time out, the Kingston squad will look to give their fortunes a boost a year later. Having an OUA bronze medalist in their corner will do wonders to help make that goal a reality, and they’ll have just that with Karly Kudrinko (Jordan Station, Ont.) returning for her fifth season with Queen’s.
Retuning medalists will also be front and centre for the McMaster Marauders, who saw several of their wrestlers take home hardware in 2019. At the forefront of the maroon machine is Ameen Aghamirian (Kingston, Ont.), who after winning gold in the 82kg class, took home the OUA’s Outstanding Male Wrestler award. The fifth-year standout began his campaign with a bronze medal at the McMaster Invitational, but will be looking to close out the OUA portion with a golden result.
Also getting her season off to a strong start at Mac’s home event was Ligaya Stinellis (Hannon, Ont.), who earned the lone medal for the Marauder women on the day. It was certainly a promising start for the reigning OUA Women’s Rookie of the Year, who burst onto the scene in her debut with a podium finish in the 48kg and will look to make yet another splash in her second showing at the OUA finale.
Helping to round out the Hamilton squad’s contingent are another collection of medalists from the last few months, including Connor Quinton (Kingston, Ont.), who finished first in 68kg at the Western Open; Simi Jayeoba (North York, Ont.), who placed second at the 2019 Junior Nationals (63kg); as well as Joelle Vanderslagt (Sarnia, Ont.) and Francesco Fortino (Hamilton, Ont.), both of whom captured multiple podium finishes this season.
A pair of Greater Toronto Area schools will round out the field, with the Ryerson Rams and Toronto Varsity Blues also hitting the mats. For Ryerson, experience will be the name of the game, as they’ll be sending their biggest roster in years to the OUA finale. And after seeing themselves ranked in the fall portion of the season – a milestone that had not yet been reached by the program – the Rams contingent will be looking to impose their strengths against the rest of the conference’s elite.
Sarabnoor Lally, Ryerson’s lone attendee at last year’s event, returns for his second championship go-around. The experience that the Brampton, Ont. native gained en route to his fifth-place result in the 82kg weight class will be invaluable for the rest of the Rams’ roster, while Lally himself moves up to the 90kg category in his second championship appearance. Alongside Lally will by Kyle Jordon (Toronto, Ont.), who despite not competing in an OUA championship yet, does bring a pair of gold medals from the Ryerson Open (120kg) with him to his debut showing.
For the Blues, meanwhile, it will be a pair of returning bronze medalists that hope to spearhead the charge. Caleb Goodfellow (Roslin, Ont.) picked up his third-place hardware in the 90kg category, while Rachel Zack did so in the women’s 72kg class. The latter, who is entered in the same weight class this time around, is coming off an impressive campaign that saw the Toronto, Ont. native place second at the York Open and third at the Ryerson Invitational, while also picking up top-five showings at the McMaster Invitational and Guelph Open, respectively.
Competition gets underway at 9:30am on Saturday, February 1 at the Gryphons Athletic Centre, with gold medal matches hitting the mats at approximately 2:30pm.
