Marauders dominate at Western Open weekend

Thanks to the commending efforts of McMaster’s own Erica D’Angelo, Chris Garneau and Andrew Balach, the Marauders are another step closer to reaching the OUA Wrestling Championships.

With the Western open marking D’Angelo’s return to competition she saw some of her best results of the season on Saturday, winning a silver medal in the 55kg weight class.

Garneau and Ballach each grabbed podium finishes with third place finishes.

D’Angelo opened the competition with a win against York wrestler Colleen Semple and scored a decision victory over Saskatchewan’s Laryssa Barry in the second round. D’Angelo’s success came to an end as Liz Sera of Concordia University defeated her in the final round.

Garneau shut out Memorial’s Steve Adams with a suplex in the first round, before losing a 14-6 decision to the eventual division champion, CJ Hudson from Brock University.

In the consolation rounds, Garneau defeated Kyle Horvath of Calgary 11-4 which brought him to the bronze medal match where he out-pointed Matt Jagas of the London Wrestling Club with a 14-2 victory which secured him a podium position on the day.

Third year heavy weight Andrew Balach reached the podium in the 120kg weight class by opening with dominating wins over Saskatchewan’s Jacob Phillips and L’Essor Wrestling Club’s own Paul Demers.

Like his fellow teammate Garneau, Balach was eventually defeated by the eventual division Champion CJ Thoms from the University of New Brunswick. Balach rebounded however with a second win over Phillips in the consolation round, and defeated Algoma’s Dennon Armstrong 2-1 in the bronze medal match.

Female wrestler Christianna Walker defeated her first round opponent Lauren Towell of Algoma before eventually falling to the division champion Alyssa Cleaves in the second round. Walker responded with a commanding consolation round victory over Emma Crouch from Guelph before suffering a narrow 13-10 loss to Silke Svenkson of Saskatchewan

McMaster will enjoy a week off from competition as they continue to prepare for their stint in the OUA Championships hosted by York University in two weeks on Feb. 16.