Gryphon Weekend Wrap (Feb. 9-11, 2024)

GUELPH, Ont. – A total of eight Gryphon varsity teams are featured in the latest edition of the ‘Gryphon Weekend Wrap’ for the period covering February 9 to 11, 2024.
 

With three Gryphon teams in postseason action this weekend, the Gryphon wrestling teams led the way with eight student-athletes earning trips to the podium at the 2024 OUA Wrestling Championships. Highlighting the day was the Gryphon women seeing five athletes capture provincial medals on the way to a bronze medal finish in the team standings, the first time the Gryphon women have been back on the podium since the 2018-19 season. Logan Stimson (83kg) and Mary Adarkwa (76kg) each captured silver medals while Jayden Sparks (56kg), Brooklyn Glasgow (53kg), and Kelyn Young (50kg) all earn silver. On the men’s side, the Gryphons saw Brennan Laplante-Brady (72kg) and Tristan Cako (57kg) take home silver with Caius Harbridge (76kg) earning bronze en route to the U of G men finishing 4th in the final team standings. The Gryphon wrestling team’s next action comes on March 2, 2024 when they will see their home gym host the 2024 U SPORTS Wrestling Championships. 

Another team in postseason action was the Gryphon squash teams, who traveled to Niagara-on-the-Lake for the 2024 OUA Squash Championships. At the White Oaks Resort, both the U of G men’s and women’s squash teams posted 1-2 records through pool play before earning a spot in the 5th-place matches with consolation semifinal victories over the Ottawa Gee-Gees. In their final placement matches both Gryphon teams suffered losses, with the men falling to the Brock Badgers 5-2 and the women 7-0 to U of T, to finish thr tournament in 6th-place. 

The third and final team in the postseason was the University of Guelph varsity fencing team which made the short trip to Toronto for the 2024 OUA Women’s Fencing Championships. The Gryphons fencing team’s performance at the University of Toronto was highlighted by a 15th-place finish in the individual sabre event from rookie Isabelle Pense. It was the best Gryphon result of the weekend, and accounted for the only points recorded by the U of G team. 

With their 2023-24 regular season winding down the U SPORTS No. 1 & 2-ranked Gryphons men’s and women’s track & field teams were split between a pair of events on both sides of the border. South of the border, the U of G team sent several middle distance runners to the David Hemery Valentine Invitational, hosted by Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts. Highlighting the Gryphon performance was Cameron Ormond, who ran a 4:34.30 mile and finished 11th. Her time converts to a 4:13.93 1500m run which is currently the best in U SPORTS. Teammate Julia Agostinelli also had a strong showing with a time that would convert to a 4:22.25 1500m, putting her 3rd in the nation. On the men’s side, Nicholas Bannon highlighted the Gryphons time down south, running the 3km race in 8:00.96, a personal best and the 4th-best time in U SPORTS. 

In Windsor the Gryphon track & field team saw four more athletes auto-qualify for nationals with Chloe Zaraska doing so in the women’s high jump, Marcus Penaloza-Abankwah in the men’s 300m, Gabrielle Cole in the women’s 60m dash, and Nicole McKenzie auto-qualifying in the women’s 300m. Also impressing was 600m specialist and fourth-year student-athlete Alanzo Ryan, who won the 600m with a time of 1:19.97, good enough for the sixth best time in the country.

For the Gryphon volleyball teams, this past weekend saw the final road trip of the regular season, with the teams in Kingston to take on the U SPORTS No. 5-ranked Queen’s Gaels. Both teams were unable to come away with wins in the two-game sets, with the Gryphon women moving to 12-6 on the season and the No. 9-ranked men falling to 13-5. Despite the losses the U of G men’s volleyball team saw their all-Canadian talent and outside hitter Jonathan Pickett reach a career milestone with his 1000th point as a collegiate athlete. 

At the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre the U of G basketball teams took the court in their final regular season home games. For the Gryphon men, who were officially eliminated from playoff contention last week, they saw a pair of impressive performances in a 93-79 loss to the Mustangs. 2022-23 OUA Rookie of the Year Dezayne Mingo recorded his second career triple-double, and the second in program history, while Viktoras Nausedas set a new career-high with 24 points in the final home game of his Gryphon career. For the Gryphon women, who are still battling for the 1st-seed in the OUA West and a bye through to the quarterfinal round of the playoffs, they entered into a tie for the divisional lead after falling to the Mustangs 68-62. 

Finally, the U SPORTS No. 2-ranked Gryphons women’s hockey team suffered their first loss since November 17 Saturday night (Feb. 10) to the Western Mustangs. It marked just the second regulation loss of the season for the Gryphons and also snapped a 14-game winning streak. With two games remaining the Gryphons are looking to lock up home-ice advantage throughout the McCaw Cup playoffs, needing just a single-point to ensure they finish ahead of the Ni pissing Lakers who lead the OUA East. 
 

Gryphon Weekend Scoreboard

Saturday, February 10, 2024
 

Sunday, February 11, 2023