This year’s U SPORTS championship banner marks the 21st in program history for the Badgers men’s wrestling team, more than double any other wrestling program across the country. Photo credit: Brock University Athletics/Brad Hamilton
If there’s one thing that’s for sure, it’s the success of the Brock Badgers wrestlers.
The Brock Badgers men’s wrestling team extended their U SPORTS dominance claiming their eighth consecutive national championship banner recently in Edmonton.
The Badgers captured six total medals including two gold, three silver, and one bronze. Brock finished first overall in the men’s standings with a total of 65 points.
“Our guys put the work in, that was the bottom line this weekend. They took on the challenge of being the defending champions, and stepped up and performed all weekend,” Badgers head coach, and former Canadian Olympian, Marty Calder told gobadgers.ca.
Calder was also named the U SPORTS Men’s Team Coach of the Year.
“It was great to be back competing at this event, it was for the athletes.”
The Badgers were led by veteran, and team captain, Bobby Narwal and first-year grappler Carlos Vargas, who each captured gold in their 72kg and 68kg categories.
Narwal swept his round-robin matches earning technical fall victories over McMaster and Alberta, while also picking up a pin fall win over UNB.
Narwal won gold with an impressive 10-0 technical fall victory against Calgary.
The freshman Vargas also went undefeated during round-robin action recording three technical fall wins over Toronto, Calgary, and Concordia. Vargas never gave up a single point in the trio of matches.
In his gold medal victory Vargas too scored a 10-0 technical fall win over Saskatchewan.
Other Badgers to medal in Edmonton included Max Budgey who claimed silver in the 76kg weight class, Roger Li who captured silver in the 125kg category, Jordan Wylie who won silver at 82kg, and Gabriel Blanchette who picked up a bronze in the 65kg event.
This year’s U SPORTS championship banner marks the 21st in program history for the Badgers men’s wrestling team, more than double any other wrestling program across the country. With eight straight U SPORTS national championships dating back to 2014, the Brock men sit just two banners shy of their longest program streak of national championships, which previously saw the Badgers bring home 10 consecutive banners between 1999-2008.
And oh yeah, did I mention the Brock Badgers women’s team won silver in Edmonton.
A number of current Badgers, including U Sports gold medalist Mia Friesen of St. Catharines will be competing this weekend in Waterloo, Ontario at the Canadian Wrestling Championships.
This is a key event in determining the athletes who will go on to represent Canada at the upcoming Pan Am Games and World Wrestling Championships, as well as identifying the top Canadian wrestlers in each weight category. The 2023 Canadian Wrestling Championships are also an opportunity to see future Olympians in action as they start on their path to the podium.
There will be 25 wrestlers representing Niagara and the Brock Wrestling Club in Waterloo this weekend.
Rod Mawhood is a lifelong Niagara native who has had the pleasure of working in all three mediums – Radio, Print and TV – for over 20 years. His first announcing gig was with the then St. Catharines Stompers. Since then he’s worked in radio and TV in Toronto, and currently is the announcer for the Niagara IceDogs and Niagara River Lions.
Rod also covers the Buffalo Bills for FOX Sports and the Buffalo Sabres for NBC Sports.
