The Brock Badgers bested their finish from a year ago, placing fifth at the 2024 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Men's Squash Championship.
This year's tournament took place at White Oaks Resort in Niagara-on-the-Lake from Friday, Feb. 9 to Sunday, Feb. 11 and was hosted by the Western Mustangs.
"Both teams fought hard all weekend, and there were some tremendous rookie wins," said head coach Matt Easingwood. " There is lots of depth and returning players on both teams. We have lots to look forward to next year."
On Day 1, the Badgers took on the Toronto Varsity Blues and Waterloo Warriors in round-robin action. The Varsity Blues took the first match 7-0 while the Waterloo Warriors defeated the Badgers 6-1. Tyson Schille, a captain and graduating member, won the lone match against the team from Waterloo, besting their No. 1 player Rayan Hashmi in three sets (14-12, 11-7, 11-6).
Demonstrating resilience, Brock bounced back with a 5-2 win over the Ottawa Gee-Gees in their last round-robin match. Schille, Jeffrey Dommasch and Setia Joy won their individual matchups in straight sets while Kemar Lord and Ali Jariwalla earned some hard-fought five-set wins. Lord defeated Ibrahim Ghani by set scores of 12-10, 11-2, 9-11, 10-12, 11-9 while Jariwalla bested Kyle Lamprecht in a comeback win (11-7, 5-11, 7-11, 11-4, 11-7).
To finish out their Saturday, the Badgers squeaked out a tight 4-3 win over the Marauders in the consolation semifinal. Joy and Jariwalla started the match off with three-set sweeps. After Lord dropped a tough five-set loss to John Renwick, Dommasch earned another win in three sets (11-3, 11-9, 11-8). The Marauders earned two more victories, meaning the final matchup between Schille and Scott Holtshousen would decide the winning team. Schille took the challenge head on, defeating Holtshousen in three sets (11-9, 11-2, 11-9), giving Brock the win.
Against the Guelph Gryphons, the Badgers came out firing as they got out to four consecutive early wins courtesy of Joy, Jariwalla, Lord and Dommasch. Jariwalla in particular came back from down two sets to one to defeat Kohar Jack in five (8-11, 11-2, 8-11, 11-4, 11-2). Dommasch also made a similar comeback in his win over Nathan MacLean (6-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-4, 11-6). Guelph won two matches before Schille ended his OUA career with a big three-set sweep (11-5, 11-5, 11-4) over Noah Crawford to help Brock win the match 5-2.
For the 40th time, the host Mustangs were named men's squash champions, defeating the Queen's Gaels 7-0. The Varsity Blues earned bronze, beating the Waterloo Warriors 4-2.
At the conclusion of the tournament, Schille was named an OUA all-star.
Though Schille is graduating, the Badgers have a lot of optimism with their talents from around the world and throughout Canada returning in 2025.
