Badgers eye national crowns at home
The Brock men’s and women’s wrestling teams head into this weekend’s 2025 Wrestling Canada Lutte U SPORTS Invitational Championships at Canada Games Park looking to continue their lengthy runs of success.
The men will be looking for their 10th straight and 23rd overall crown while the women will be seeking their 12th overall national championship and the 11th in the past 12 years.
Both teams enter the championships ranked No. 1 in the country on the strength of their triumphs at the Ontario University Athletics championships. The men won their ninth straight OUA title and 26th overall while the women captured their 10th consecutive and 23rd overall Ontario team title.
Marty Calder, the OUA men’s coach of the year, likes where his team is at heading into nationals.
“They’ve worked hard, they have had good results and OUs went very well. There are some really good teams coming here and we know we are going to be contested but I am looking forward to it.”
He describes every weight class as key.
“We have to fight every battle out there and that’s the way we have always won our national championships, not just with first-place guys but the fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth, even those matches.”
Calder believes it’s an advantage to wrestle at home.
“Our crowd wants to watch us wrestle. It can be distracting but I think it is a good opportunity for our kids. We have to make it an advantage for us.”
The University of Alberta, Western and McMaster have tough teams but Calder feels there are good athletes on every team.
“I don’t really want to single out a team and we are cognizant of who is coming at us, that’s for sure.”
Representing Brock on the men’s side are: OUA champions, Garette Saunders (61 kilograms), Gabriel Blanchette (68 kilograms), Cole Cognill (76 kilograms), Yazdan Farokhizad (90 kilograms), Callum Knox (100 kilograms) and Roger Li (125 kilograms); OUA silver medalists, Zakir Ibrahimkheil (57 kilograms), Hamzah Al-Qayse (72 kilograms) and Johannes Budgey (82 kilograms); and, OUA bronze medalist Mason Mastroianni (65 kilograms).
Blanchette will be looking for his first U SPORTS championship. He won OUA and U SPORTS bronze in 2023 and OUA and U SPORTS silver in 2024.
“He is a fantastic kid, a great worker and a dream to coach,” Calder said. “He has made steady progress right from the start because he is cerebral about the game and has an excellent work ethic.”
Calder says Blanchette’s season has a pattern.
“At the beginning of the year in our prep tournaments, sometimes he is a little slower but he comes through in the end. He had done that year after year.”
Calder feels Blanchette definitely has a shot at winning gold.
Blanchette, a 22-year-old Oakville native, is in his fourth year of eligibility, is looking to win gold this year.
“Of course, that is my goal.”
He believes he has made progress this season towards that target.
“I am a more confident wrestler and I’ve got more technique. My fundamentals are a lot better and I have been working with the coaches to fill in the gaps in my wrestling where my opponents were scoring.”
He agrees he is a cerebral wrestler.
“Some of the big things are making small changes in my matches. When I come into the corner at half, I fix mistakes I made in the first half.”
Making adjustments is key to Blanchette’s success.
“Most matches I have a slow start and I might get scored on in the beginning but the further the match goes, the better I wrestle.”
He is looking forward to wrestling in front of a hometown crowd.
“I am really excited to wrestle here. I haven’t been able to have a big tournament at home since OUAs in my first year so it’s really cool to be back home in a big tournament. It’s just a different atmosphere compared to everywhere else. You have more fans and you have more people in your corner.”
Blanchette will be returning for his fifth year of eligibility and can’t believe how time has flown by.
“Everything has been going by really quick and I still remember wrestling my first OUAs here.”
Representing Brock on the women’s side are: OUA gold medalists, Vanessa Keefe (68 kilograms), Brianna Fraser (83 kilograms), Bronwyn MacGregor (65 kilograms) and Michaela Rankin (62 kilograms); OUA silver medalists, Samantha Romero (50 kilograms) and Francesca Lo Greco (53 kilograms); and, OUA bronze medalists, Olivia Mathezer (56 kilograms), Jusleen Sidhu (59 kilograms), Rachel Hall (72 kilograms) and Cassie Corbett (76 kilograms).
Dave Collie, the OUA women’s coach of the year, is looking forward to seeing his team compete at nationals.
“We are a young team but our preparations have been great and they have been looking really good. They’re ready.”
There is no secret to winning a national title.
“All 10 of our athletes have to show up and perform to the best of their abilities. It’s going to be a tight race for the team championship.”
He feels the University of Calgary and Western are Brock’s biggest threats.
“They both have very strong teams.”
Collie likes competing at home.
“Any time you have a chance to have the national championships at home, it is an amazing opportunity and you want to take full advantage of that,” he said. “It is good pressure. It is nice for them to compete in front of their fans and sleep in their own beds and hopefully our team will handle that pressure well.”
On Friday, sessions will run from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Saturday’s schedule includes: the fifth versus sixth and the seventh versus eighth matches starting at 9 a.m.; the bronze medal matches starting at noon; and, the gold medal matches being contested at 3 p.m.
