McMaster's wrestling team won a total of five medals at the 2025 Wrestling Canada Lutte U Sports Invitational Championships
From Feb. 28 to March 1, 2025, the Marauders wrestling team competed at the 2025 Wrestling Canada Lutte U Sports Invitational Championships in St. Catharines, Ont. In total, the Marauders won two gold and two bronze medals.
Having just seen great success at the OUA championships, the Marauders were looking to capitalize on their momentum. Following impressive performances on Friday, five wrestlers advanced to the matches for medals on March 1, 2025.
Having just seen great success at the OUA championships, the Marauders were looking to capitalize on their momentum
The women’s team won two gold medals and placed fifth overall with 34 points. Two women competed for gold medals: Serena Di Benedetto in the 53-kilogram category and Olivia Lichti in the 59-kg category. Di Benedetto, a second-year humanities student, won gold. Lichti, a third-year kinesiology student, secured a major victory against the University of Calgary, winning gold as well in her category.
On the men’s side, three wrestlers competed for a chance to bring home medals. Fourth-year civil engineering student Luken Lawson defeated his opponent from the University of Toronto in the bronze medal match.
Third-year mechanical engineering student Blayne Helou also won bronze in his match against his opponent from the University of Saskatchewan. Graduate student Gianluca Fortino just missed the podium, finishing fourth against Brock.
Overall, the men’s team finished in seventh place with 25 points. The University of Alberta took home the gold medal.
With this being the final tournament of the season for the Marauders, they will look to learn from their successes this season and come back even stronger on the mat next year.
McMaster hosted the first wrestling open of the season, where the Marauders performed outstandingly
The Marauders women’s and men’s wrestling teams dominated their first open on Sunday, Nov. 3. The competition featured 40 teams across Canada, with the Marauders collectively finishing in first place.
The women’s team took home three gold medals while the men secured two bronzes and a silver. Fourth-year engineering student and member of the team, Luken Lawson, praised the team, especially the younger competitors.
“[There] were a lot of new guys on the team, but a lot of our rookies did pretty well. I was impressed with everyone," said Lawson
[There] were a lot of new guys on the team, but a lot of our rookies did pretty well. I was impressed with everyone.
Luken Lawson, fourth-year wrestler
McMaster Wrestling team
On the men’s side, Sarpartap Lally took home the silver while both Lawson and team member Irman Kang won bronze. Lawson’s performance stood out, competing in eight matches throughout the day and winning seven of them, resulting in him being named a Marauder athlete of the week.
“I knew it was going to be a long day . . . but I was pretty impressed with my performance. My coaches were pretty impressed [as well] with how I was moving and I felt really fast,” said Lawson.
Lawson, who is in his fourth year of competition, acknowledged there were still things he wanted to work on. But, he was glad he could go out there and both have fun and take home a medal. After a long day of competition, the exhaustion did not hit him until the next day.
“I was running off of a lot of adrenaline during the day and I was looking forward to the next match. I wasn’t really feeling [tired] until the next morning where I spent a couple extra minutes in bed,” said Lawson.
There will be five more opens ahead of the OUA championships, which will be on Feb. 8. To qualify for the championships, a team must compete in at least two opens, which the Marauders have already done.
According to Lawson, while the team’s performance in these opens does not matter in terms of making it to the OUA championship, it does helps with seeding. If team members place high in the opens, they will not have to face some of the tougher wrestlers early during the OUA tournament.
With their most recent performance, they have a lot to look forward to. The Marauders earned 73 points to place atop the standings. The women won 54 of those points, finishing in first place, while the men contributed 19, finishing in fourth.
Lawson pointed out the increased focus of this year's team and praised the culture of comradery they’ve developed thus far. “Our team is really close this year, especially with the mentality we all share. I found that we are very focused; there’s not much chit-chatter in practice, but after practice we like to joke around,” said Lawson.
Our team is really close this year, especially with the mentality we all share. I found that we are very focused; there’s not much chit-chatter in practice, but after practice we like to joke around.
Luken Lawson, fourth-year wrestler
McMaster Wrestling team
Next, the Marauders will be travelling to Toronto on Saturday, Nov. 16 to participate in York University’s wrestling open.
McMasters men’s and women’s wrestling teams went to the Ontario University Athletics Wrestling Championships to compete in Guelph on Feb. 1 and 2. The tournament consisted of ten of the top wrestling programs across Ontario, the Algoma University Thunderbirds, Brock University Badgers, the University of Guelph Gryphons, the Lakehead University Timberwolves, the Queen’s University Gaels, the Ryerson University Rams, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, the Western University Mustangs, the York University Lions and your own Marauders. With medals on the line, Mcmaster stepped up to the occasion and armlocked the competition, coming home with a respectable haul of hardware.
Even though the championship has been historically dominated by Brock University, the Marauders medaled in eight individual weight categories. The men’s team finished with a total of 66 points, earning them second overall in the tournament. Points are scored by pulling off maneuvers that all have a different weight in the point system. The maroon and grey totalled four bronze, two silvers and two gold medals.
For the past five years, Brock University has held the OUA Wrestling Championships banners for best overall performance in men’s and women’s wrestling. This year alone they received ten of the 19 gold medals up for grabs, but with nine left on the table they allowed McMaster to get a few of their own.
Ben Zahra, in the 76 kg weight class, and Ameen Aghamirian, in the 82 kg weight class, were the Marauders draped in gold on Sunday. Zhara’s dominant performance led to him being declared the OUA Male Athlete of the Week on Feb. 3.
Previously, Zahra had earned silver for three consecutive years at the tournament, but was never able to break the top of the podium.This year, however, he finally cracked the code and took home gold.
“Placing second for the past three years at OUAs really fuelled me throughout this season. When I was able to come out on top at OUAs this past weekend it really gave me confidence in my training,” said Zahra.
He won three tech falls, outscoring the opponent, in the pool rounds to start the day as he took down Queen’s, Toronto’s, and Algoma’s performers in the 76 kg weight class.
Having performed in the OUA regular season with such dominance, he earned a shot at the title match against the previously undefeated in the OUA regular season Ty Bridgwater of the Brock Badgers dominant wrestling team. The match was a close one as Zahra narrowly won by a margin of eight to five in his favour. On top of this performance, he was honoured with the title of the OUA’s Outstanding Male Wrestler of the year.
Zahra’s unbeaten day and breakthrough performance was a terrific way to end his fourth year in the OUA with the Marauders squad, before potentially heading to Canadian Junior/Senior Championships.
While Zahra delivered one of the more impressive performances, let’s not forget about the other medalists in the men’s category. Francesco Fortino was the bronze winner in the 57 kg weight class. Trystan Kato also took home a bronze medal in the 72 kg weight class. The silver winners were Connor Quinton in the 68 kg weight class and Bradley MaGarrey in the 90 kg weight class.
Two of the women’s team contenders who earned a bronze medal are Simi Jayeoba within the 63 kg weight class and Joelle Vanderslagt in the 67 kg weight class. It is important to recognize that the women’s team is outnumbered 20 to five by the men’s team, making their two medal mark impressive.
The women’s team ended up with 40 per cent of participants placing with medals and the men’s team finished with 30 per cent of their participants placing with medals. With almost half of the women’s team and just under a third of the men’s team placing on the podium, it is clear that the program has a good shot to continue their success at nationals on Feb. 20-22.
Zahra said, “going into the U Sports Championships I am looking forward to just competing and really leaving it all out there on the mat no matter the result. I’m also looking forward to watching all my teammates compete and show their skills on the national level.”
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