HAMILTON-WENTWORTH CATHOLIC DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD
Bishop Ryan Celtics dominate at OFSAA Wrestling Tournament

By Larry Moko

For the first time since 1994 the Bishop Ryan Celtics have returned from an OFSAA wrestling tournament as boys' team champion.

The Celtics accomplished that feat last week at GFL Memorial Gardens in Sault Ste. Marie, edging out Pickering Secondary School for top spot.

In addition to capturing the elusive boys' team title, the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic league powerhouse finished second in the girls' team category - behind Sarnia St. Patrick's -- and took top honours in the combined team category for a third consecutive year.

There were also individual medal winners from BR. Serena Di Benedetto was a repeat gold-medallist in the 51-kilogram division, while Claudia Landry picked up silver in the 115 kg weight class.

Team accomplishments wouldn't have been attainable if it hadn't been for the podium finishes of six other Bishop Ryan wrestlers: Nathan Crisante, fourth (38 kg); Adriano Di Benedetto, fourth (77 kg); Lukas Geske, fifth (77kg); Hunter King-Spittle, fifth (64 kg); Gianluca Fortino, sixth (61kg), Carlina Cipolla, fifth (47.5 kg).

The three-day OFSAA event attracted approximately 750 high school wrestlers from 200 high schools across the province. And with the outcome, Bishop Ryan moved into an all-time tie with Scarborough's Winston Churchill Collegiate Institute for most boys' team championships (seven). Bishop Ryan previously finished atop the boys' standings in 1982, '83, '85, '86, '90 and '94.

"I'm very happy with the performance of our team as a whole," Celtics wrestling coach Sheldon Francis said. "You don't get a team championship the way we did without everyone winning key matches against key opponents.

"I was a little disappointed we didn't get an individual (male) in the top three, but we had the highest concentration of quality wrestlers."

For seven years, the Celtic boys' squad finished as runners-up provincially.

"We all yelled loudly because we weren't expecting it," Francis said of the public address message after all the points had been calculated. "When they announced the third-place team points and the second-place team points I was actually on my way up to the drawmaster because I thought they calculated our team points wrong and that we were left out of the top three. Then they announced us as the champions. It was very exciting."

Turner Fenton of Brampton and Milton E.C. Drury are the only schools with six OFSAA boys' titles.

Top-seeded Serena Di Benedetto's first-place finish came in a tough weight class which included national-team members Kelyn Young from Mayfield and Arely Torales from West Humber.

Serena, who won bronze for Canada last year (46 kg) at the Pan-American cadet championships, defeated both Young and Torales who are one and two years her senior.

"She dominated," Francis said. "The scores were typical Serena scores (8-2, 14-5), but the matches were a lot tougher. They were great matches for her to have."

According to Francis, Grade 10 student Landry continues improve and surprise people.

"I obviously wanted gold but I was proud of myself for winning silver," Landry said. "But in my opinion it was the size difference that really got me. The girl I wrestled weighed in at 110 kilos and I weighed in at 88. So there was a significant difference. I pretty much got bullied in my final match."

Landry was pleased, too, that the pinky finger she broke in the past month didn't sideline her for OFSAA.

"I'm happy I was able to recover quickly and meet my goal of making it to the gold-medal match," she said.

Ali Hammoud of the St. Thomas More Knights had the other top-six finish for an HWCAA athlete - sixth (64 kg).