Wrestling | 2/10/2025 2:15:00 PM
It was a decorated weekend for the York University Lions at the OUA wrestling championship in Sault Ste. Marie.
Three Lions earned hardware, including two silvers and two bronze, as York wrestled its way to a sixth-place finish at the championship with 92.0 team points. That matches their best finish since 2017, having finished sixth in 2018, 2019 and 2022.
Arely Torales took home silver in the women's 56kg weight class. She won her opening match by fall just 24 seconds in over Victoria Velasquez Berreira of the Queen's Gaels. She then beat Ella Pilot of the Lakehead Thunderwolves by fall at the 2:01 mark in the second round, before downing Senuki Dasanayaka of McMaster by an 11-6 decision to advance to the final. There, she put up a valiant effort against Kendall Dettloff of the Western Mustangs, but lost by fall 1:37 into the match.
Also on the women's side, Prabhleen Randhawa secured silver in the 65kg category. She also beat a Queen's wrestler in the opening round, also by fall, downing Clara Ryan a mere 20 seconds in. In Round 2, she bested Ayla Thurston of the Lakehead by fall 3:49 into the bout, receiving a bye to the final. There, she battled Bronwyn McGregor of the Brock Badgers, bowing out by technical fall (10-0).
In the men's bracket, Stephan Niron and Ali Dahcha brought home bronze medals. Niron placed third in the 57kg weight class, going 3-1 en route to bronze. He won his opening round match by decision over Guelph's Josh Bissett (22-16). After dropping his second round match by fall to Brock's Zakir Ibrahimkheil, he rebounded to win his third round match over Toronto's Jimmy Lin and earn the final podium position with a victory over Chase Prince of the TMU Bold, winning by technical fall (10-0).
Dahcha, the final medalist of the weekend, fell in the opening round to Irman King of the McMaster Marauders by technical fall (11-1), but bounced back nicely to win his next two matches. He felled Omar Al-Lahham of the Toronto Varsity Blues in the third round 1:25 in and did the same to Thomas Fortier of the Western Mustangs at 2:54. He received an injury bye to the bronze medal match, where he defeated Lakehead's Ryan Barney by tech fall (10-0).
Rav Chahal narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the men's 125 kg class. He won his opening bout by fall 2:44 into the match over McMaster's Taha Naous. After losing his second-round duel, he battled for bronze against Mitch Schenchinger of the Guelph Gryphons, coming up just short by technical fall (10-0).
However, Chahal as well as the four Lions medalists will be heading to Brock for the Wrestling Canada Lutte U SPORTS championships from Feb. 28-Mar. 1 in St. Catharines.
