Four Marauders win gold at OUA Wrestling Championship

McMaster University hosted the 2012 OUA Wrestling Championship in Burridge Gymnasium this past weekend, and the home team emerged with four gold medals. Sean House, Ryan Blake, Kevin MacLellan and rookie Jason Buckle all earned top honours in the tournament.

The Marauder men finished second, just behind the Western Mustangs, and the Marauder women placed fifth overall.

Four-time OUA gold medal winner Blake won the 72 kg weight class, beating out the Mustangs Sam Hanna. Veteran MacLellan took out Brock University's Anton Schpillo in the 82 kg weight class for the second OUA gold medal of his varsity career. In the 90 kg weight class, House overtook Kevin Ens for his first OUA gold, and rookie Buckle finished at the top of his 57 kg weight class, beating out Brock's Tim Clement for the title.

“It feels good to win the gold but I'm more excited for the whole team,” said Blake. “I really feel like we've accomplished something.”

McMaster's only silver medal came from rookie Chris Garneau, who lost a close match against Brock's CJ Hudson. Allan Middleton and Aaron Misner won bronze along with Sydney Duggan, who was the only medal winner from the women's side.

Other notable performances came from Erica D'Angelo who finished fourth, having to forfeit the bronze medal match due to injury. Her teammates, Alyshia Anderson and Bianca Fung, also took home fourth place in the 67 kg and 48kg weight classes.

”I was impressed with all of the athletes. We wrestled as well as we could have,” said wrestling head coach Nick Cipriano. “From this point onward, we'll go into a specialized training program and start to prepare specific individuals for their opponents in the CIS.”

With the conclusion of the OUA final, the Marauders are setting their sights on the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Wrestling Championship, which takes place February 24-25 at Lakehead University.