Wrestling | 1/16/2025 2:58:00 PM
The York University Lions wrestling team kicked off the 2025 portion of their schedule last Saturday in St. Catharine's at the Brock Open.
The best showing of the weekend came from York male athlete of the week Ali Dahcha, who finished third in the men's 50kg weightclass. Dahcha won his first match over Ryan Barney of Lakehead to advance to the quarters. There, he fell to Zaur Arsagov of Concordia. However, the rookie bounced back and won his final four matches, including by fall at the 2:07 mark of the bronze medal match over Jayden Harrison of the Guelph Gryphons.
The bronze is Dahcha's second straight podium finish after a silver at the U of T Open to conclude the fall term.
Meanwhile, George Martinez finished just on the outside of a podium placement, as he ended up fourth in the 76kg category. Receiving a bye to the quarterfinals, Martinez dropped his opening match to move to the consolation side of the bracket. He rebounded to win three straight matches, beating Rahmane Ouattara of Queen's, Pratham Singh of Toronto and Armaan Jawandha of McMaster to earn a spot in the bronze medal match. However, there he fell by technical fall to Chance Mutuku of the Brock Wrestling Club to earn a fourth-place finish.
With these results, the York men's team remains nationally-ranked, slotting in at No. 10 in the Wrestling Canada Lutte U SPORTS Top 10. The Lions now prepare to head to Guelph to take part in the Guelph Open on Sunday.
