Ainsworth, Gutierrez-Sarabia named Brock University Athletes of the Week

Laurin Ainsworth (Blenheim, Ont) of the women’s volleyball team and Nicholas Gutierrez-Sarabia (Budpest, Hungary) of the men’s fencing team have been named the Brock University Athletes of the Week for the period ending Sunday, March 17. 

At the U SPORTS Women’s Volleyball Championship, Ainsworth finished both of Brock’s matches with double-digit kills. In their quarter-final contest against the Acadia Axewomen on Friday, March 15, the Kinesiology major finished tied for second on the team with 14.5 points off 11 kills, one service ace and 2.5 blocks. Ainsworth followed that up with a team-high 11 points off ten kills and one block in the team’s consolation semifinal matchup with the host McMaster Marauders. Over the weekend, the junior outside hitter was an efficient attacker, notching hitting percentages of .364 and .290 while finishing with 21 kills compared to just four errors.  

For the second consecutive year, Gutierrez-Sarabia has earned a silver medal in the individual epee competition at the OUA Men’s Fencing Championship. The Critical Criminology student was seeded seventh heading into the direct elimination round, finishing with indicators of +8 and +10, respectively, after two rounds of pool play. He then won his next three matches in the direct elimination round by scores of 15-11, including besting the No. 2 seed Mohab Mefreh of the McMaster Marauders in the quarter-final and RMC’s Daniil Makarenko in the semifinal. In the final showdown, Gutierrez-Sarabia fell 15-12 to Waterloo’s Seraphim Jarov in a tight contest, finishing second out of 43 competitors.