Wrestling | 1/28/2025 2:00:00 PM

The York University Lions wrestling team was back in action Sunday at the Western Open in London, the final meet ahead of the OUA championships next month. 

The Lions best performances were a fourth-place finish from Arely Torales in the women's 53kg category, along with a fifth-place finish from Daniyal Asim in the men's 61kg weight-class.

Torales, a second-year interdisciplinary social science student, dropped her first-round match and was forced onto the consolation side of the bracket. She bounced back to win her next two matches – a victory over Guelph's Brooklyn Glasgow by fall at 4:29 and another over Parisa Gill of TMU by technical fall (10-0) – to advance to the bronze medal match. Torales was bested in that bout by Myla Blackshaw of the Matmen Wrestling Club, narrowly missing out on the podium but scoring a York meet-high three team points.

Meanwhile, Asim, a third-year computer science major, started his day with a bye to the quarters. He lost his quarterfinal to Lucas DiPiono of the host Western Mustangs before winning his next match over Lakehead's Justin Homsy by tech fall (14-3). He then dropped the consolation semi-final, but earned the fifth-place match by default after DiPonio was injured in their earlier match.

Other Lions to earn match victories included Aaryan Yellapantula, who won by fall over Iyas Aljouda of the Mustangs. Also winning matches were Finn Paragas, who went 3-2 on the day in a packed men's 72kg class, and Gurpatrap Virk, who won his second consolation round match over Andrew Batman of the Algoma Thunderbirds.

The Lions will now head to Algoma for the OUA championships. The meet will be held Feb. 8 at the George Leach Centre in Sault Ste. Marie.