The Brock Badgers men's wrestling team is headed to the holiday break with a first-place result. 

Finishing atop the standings for the first time this season, the Badgers bested all challengers at the U of T Open on Saturday, No. 30 in Toronto.  

Brock ened the day with 43 points to place ahead of the Western Mustangs (38) while the host Varsity Blues placed third (27). 

Coming off a gold medal from the York Open, Callum Knox continued his winning ways in the 100-kilogram division. Knox defeated Mark Summers of the Western Mustangs by 9-5 decision before besting Andrija Rasovic of the Varsity Blues by fall at three minutes and 46 seconds to claim gold. 

Also winning gold was Roger Li who secured his first-place finish of the university season. In the three-person round robin bracket for the 125kg division, Li defeated both Ravkeerut Chahal (York Lions) by fall at 2:18 and Aanu Osunade (Western Mustangs) by fall at just 0:02. 

Yazdan Farokhizad took home his third first-place finish of the year with an undefeated showing in the 90kg event. Winning all four of his matches by technical fall, Farokhizad delivered a commanding performance as he only gave up one point all day.  

Rounding out the Badgers' gold medal performances was Hamzah Al-Qayse who won his first match by fall at 0:56 over Russell Minard of Team Extreme XC. He gave up only one point in his other two matches as he won both by technical fall en route to his first win of the year.  

Up next, after the holiday break, the Badgers are back in action at their home tournament, the Brock Invitational, on Saturday, Jan. 11 at Ian Beddis Gymnasium. 

BROCK MEN'S WRESTLING TOP SIX RESULTS AT THE 2024 U OF T OPEN 

68kg (4th) - Zach Ortencio (Western) 12-1 technical fall win over Gabriel Blanchette (Brock) 
72kg (1st) - Hamzah Al-Qayse (Brock) 10-0 technical fall win over Jacob Fritz (Toronto) 
90kg (1st) - Yazdan Farokhizad (Brock) 11-1 technical fall win over Ali Dahcha (York) 
100kg (1st) - Callum Knox (Brock) win by fall at 3:46 over Andrija Rasovic (Toronto) 
125kg (1st) - Roger Li (Brock), RR 2-0 

MEN'S TEAM STANDINGS AT THE 2024 U of T OPEN  
1 Brock University, 43 
2 Western University, 38 
3 University of Toronto, 27 
4 York University, 17 
5 National Capital WC, 14 
6 McMaster University, 13 
7 K-Bay WC, 12 
8 GTA Alliance RTC, 10 
9 London-Western WC, 10 
10 Brock WC, 8 
11 Central Toronto WC, 8 
12 Olympus WC, 7 
13 Young Guns RNWC, 7 
14 Guelph WC, 5 
15 Hamilton WC, 5 
16 Team Discipline WC, 5 
17 Team Impact WC, 5 
18 Team Xtreme WC, 4 
19 University of Guelph, 3 
20 Queen's University, 3 
21 Warriors WC, 
22 Tritton WPC, 2 
23 Lakehead University 1 
24 Phil Kennedy WC, 1 
25 Toronto Metropolitan University, 1 
26 Algoma University, 0 
27 Alogma WC, 0 
28 Black Bears WC, 0 
29 Carleton University, 0 
30 Concordia University, 0 
31 Independent, 0 
32 JF Ross HS, 0 
33 Lakehead WC, 0 
34 Matmen WC, 0 
35 Montreal WC, 0