The Brock Badgers men's fencing team placed 11th at the 2025 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Men's Fencing Championship in Kingston on Saturday, March 1 and Sunday March 2 at the Anderson Field House at Royal Military College.
"The OUA Fencing Championships marks a bittersweet ending to a tumultuous season and the final event for several of our seniors." said head coach Tim Stang. "Brock had some spectacular bouts and defeated some of the top teams but ultimately did not reach the podium. Personal bests were achieved by Nathaniel McDonnell and Ben Wignall."
Taking home the championship banner was the Toronto Varsity Blues who finished first with 358 points. In second place was the Waterloo Warriors (272) while the Western Mustangs took home bronze, collecting 195 points over two days.
In the individual men's epee event, McDonnell finished in 19th for the Badgers, besting his placement of 24th a year ago. After dropping the first matchup in round one of pool play, the Newmarket, ON product won his next four matchups.
Heading towards the second round of men's epee pool play, McDonnell again won four matches before bowing out in the Round of 32 to TMU's Mohamed Mohamed 15-12.
Robert Cruickshank had the best Badger placement in the individual men's foil category, placing 20th. Cruickshank won two matches in the first round of pool play, defeating the Bold's Huynh Quang Dai and the Raven's Lucas Hiscocks.
Advancing to the second round of pool play, Cruickshank won three matches but was bested in the Round of 32 by McMaster's Gordon Ye 15-8.
The last individual event on Saturday was the men's sabre event, where Brock's Wignall placed 22nd: a personal best at the OUA Championship. Winning three matches in the first round of pool play, Wignall advanced to the second round of pool play where he was victorious in matches over McMaster's Eason Liu (5-2) and Western's Kim MinJoon (5-4).
In the Round of 32, the Dundas, ON native fell 15-12 to Luigi Burjato of the Queen's Gaels.
On Sunday, the Brock Badgers men's fencing team competed in the team events for epee, foil and sabre.
McDonnell, David Shodipo, Karl Stang and Thomas Tam represented the Badgers in the men's epee team event.
The Badgers were bested in all three pool play matches for the men's epee team event, in a group with the McMaster Marauders, the hosting RMC Paladins and the TMU Bold.
For the men's foil team category, Brock was represented by Cruickshank, Mackenzie Andrei, Josiah Robertson and Parker Triano.
The Brock Badgers advanced out of its pool in men's foil after defeating the Carleton Ravens in a close 45-43 matchup and later the York Lions by a score of 45-26, placing them in the fifth seed spot for the knockout rounds. In the quarterfinals, the Badgers were bested 45-25 by the fourth-seed Mustangs.
Representing the Badgers in the men's sabre team event were Wignall, Josiah Kim, Andre Montrichard and Darius Williams.
The Badgers bested the Ottawa Gee-Gees 45-37 in pool play but they finished just outside the qualification line for the knockouts, placing ninth in the pool standings.
Heading into next season, the men's fencing team will look to build off their victories over some of the top ranked teams from this year's competition.
FINAL STANDINGS
1. Toronto, 358
2. Waterloo, 272
3. Western, 195
4. McMaster, 177
5. Ottawa, 167
6. Queen's, 126
7. TMU, 62
8. RMC, 56
9. York, 48
10. Carleton, 23
11. Brock, 15
12. Guelph, 0
13. Trent, 0
