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Champion Article on OFSAA
Posted by Simon on March 22 at 9:14 PM
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Drury dominates annual invitational
Led by golden performances from their fifth-year veterans, E. C. Drury’s wrestling team regained their holiday invitational title Wednesday, after surrendering it last year for the first time in over two decades.
The Spartans amassed 90 points — on 12 medals and 20 top-five finishers — to upstage runners-up Heart Lake and Sandlewood — during this year’s event, which drew a record 400-plus competitors.
Becoming the first-ever five-time Drury Invitational champ, Bobby Fillman went 4-0 for his fourth medal of the year.
It was secured in thrilling fashion, as Halton rival Zach Falcioni — who’d been edged by Fillman at the St. Catharines tournament final just a week earlier — pulled out a 1-0 decision in round one and led the second round 1-0 until the dying seconds.
That’s when Fillman, who looks to have regained his old form after struggling with injuries earlier this year, rallied to put Falcioni on his back for a 2-1 win.
The Spartans veteran had to battle back again in the tiebreaker to prevail 4-1.
Claiming his third medal in as many meets, Duncan Moffat turned back three opponents for his third straight Drury Invitational title.
Facing Heart Lake’s Travis Farrell for the gold after convincing wins over grapplers from Newtonbrook and St. Francis Xavier, Moffat took the opening round 4-0 and then clinched top spot with a hard-fought 1-0 victory.
The hosts collected four silvers, including three in the novice ranks. Doing the honours were Zach Brady, Justin Carter and Curt Barter, while Devon Whyte finished second in the open division.
Rounding out the medal haul with bronze were Arie Moldvan, James Ponton, Marcus Green, Max Michaellis, Hussam Hussien and rookie Junior Lopez.
It was Green’s first medal since taking last year off, and the first of Lopez’s career.
Alex Burnham had his best showing of the season, going 4-1 for fourth.
Blair Norland matched that finish, while fifth-place efforts were delivered by Luke Campbell, Brendon Mendoza, Nigel Whitman and rookies Thomas McKenny, Rory Payton and Bien Nguyen.
Posted by Jeff on December 22 at 6:33 PM
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Dynamos shine at CWO
The Dynamo Wrestling Club pinned down an impressive medal haul at Saturday’s Central-West Ontario Championships (CWO) in Hagersville.
Along with securing half-a-dozen top-three finishes, the local club also qualified two cadets for the Ontario Winter Games this coming March in Huntsville.
Leading the way was Bobby Fillman, who didn’t give up a single point on the way to open division gold. His 4-0 run — which included a pin-fall victory — was a promising comeback for the seasoned grappler, who has suffered a series of medical setbacks since separating his shoulder at GHAC last season.
The medal was the 60th of his career, pushing him past Kevin Heffron for second on E. C. Drury’s all-time medal list.
Also enjoying big days and earning berths to the Ontario Winter Games were Ben Bianco and Max Michaelis. Both earned silvers and dropped close decisions in the finals. They qualified by being the top-ranked CWO wrestlers in their respective weight classes.
Arie Moldvan also finished second — losing a heartbreaking three-round final to his fellow CWO adversary — while Blair Norland claimed silver in the open class and third among cadets was Luke Campbell.
The Dynamos will have a chance to qualify additional wrestlers for the Ontario Winter Games in Guelph in early February.
By Canadian Champion Sports
Posted by Jeff on December 09 at 3:44 PM
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Big start to season for EC wrestlers
By Canadian Champion Sports
E.C. Drury's wrestlers delivered a prosperous start to the season last Wednesday, amassing 18 medals at their first full tournament of the year.
A promising rookie class enjoyed much of the success.
With home-gym advantage, freshmen Zack Brady, Armon Neemuchwla, Josh Bensusan, Tyler Cole and Brandon Mendoza secured gold, as did veterans Luke Campbell, Ben Bianco and Devon Whyte.
The Spartans collected five silvers and five bronzes on the way to their overall title win.
In Beamsville Friday, Drury showed strongly at the Takedown Tournament. Securing his first career gold was James Ponton, while Campbell and Blair Norland struck silver and Jeff Sinclair earned bronze.
Also of note on the local wrestling scene, brothers Alan and Duncan Moffat finished first and fourth respectively in the same 60- kilogram division to help the Guelph Wrestling Club to top honours at Saturday's Men's Ontario Championship in Barrie.
Posted by Jeff on December 02 at 6:16 PM
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Hans wrestles way to Jr. Pan-Am bronze
Drury grad overcomes injury, nerves to win medal in national team debut
By Steve LeBlanc, Canadian Champion StaffJust a couple of years ago Ranbir Hans would have been considered a long-shot - at best - for the national wrestling program.
Now it's hardly a stretch to think he may have a long future on the international stage.And recent efforts have certainly strengthened that notion.
Making his Team Canada debut late last month in Guadalajara, Mexico, the 19-year-old E. C. Drury graduate wasn't really expected to do much more than deliver a respectable showing at the Junior Pan-American Championships.
But more he did.
Persevering through pre-tournament jitters and a late injury, Hans came away with 50-kilogram bronze - giving Milton its first-ever medal at the event and helping the national men's contingent secure team silver.
Follows own advice
"I was more nervous than usual," admitted the traditionally-poised wrestler, who capped a breakthrough senior season at Drury with a gold-medal run at OFSAA and being named the school's male athlete of the year. "But I kept telling myself 'just take it one point at a time and stay relaxed and the rest will fall into place.'"
Able to put his own advice into practice, Hans went 2-2 and closed out the Jr. Pan-Ams with a 6-0, 6-2 decision over a Guatemalan opponent in the battle for third place.
Solidified with a double-leg takedown, his bronze-medal triumph faced serious jeopardy midway through the opening round, though not because of any shortcomings on his part.
"I was doing the fireman's and I cranked it so hard that the side of my head hit the mat hard after I finished it," recalled Hans, who maintained a high level of training throughout the summer and is one of Drury's most improved grapplers in recent memory. "I started to black out a bit and took a couple of seconds to get back on my feet. Fortunately I was good to go after that. I had a burning feeling, but I was just so hyped up in the moment that I just blocked it out and refocused on wrestling."
Nearly as memorable as his medal victory was a match he didn't even win.
But given how he'd been thoroughly dominated by this same Puerto Rican rival - who went on to capture gold - when they'd squared off two years ago at the Sparta Cup, any progress would be a major source of optimism.
Improvement evident
And Hans certainly made serious headway against the tournament standout before getting caught in a bad position on a high-risk scoring attempt and pinned in the dying seconds of round one. Up until then the eventual gold medalist had just a 1-0 lead, thanks to some effective defence by the Team Canada newcomer.
"The improvement I made since the last time I wrestled him was big," noted Hans. "I felt a lot tougher, both mentally and physically. And even though I lost it made me realize how far I've come in just two years and how much closer I've come to really challenging those type of guys."
Hans opened the tournament with a 6-0, 3-0 win over an opponent from Brazil and from there dropped a narrow decision to a Mexican wrestler - losing round one on a tie-breaking clinch before getting edged 1-0 in the second round.
"Overall I was happy with my performance. I wasn't expecting to do as well as I did."
Echoing those sentiments was Drury's long-time wrestling coach Larry Jaroslawski, who served as manager for the Canadian squad.
"I was very pleased and impressed with Ranbir, especially considering this was his first tournament at this level. This experience should go a long way in his development as he moves beyond high school competition."
Posted by Jeff on December 01 at 11:43 PM
