GUELPH, Ont. – The 2019-20 season for the Guelph Gryphons men's and women's varsity wrestling teams has officially reached the halfway point.

But the real season will begin in mid-January when the schedule resumes. A total of 31 student-athletes (17 men, 14 women) are currently listed on the Guelph Gryphons varsity wrestling roster for the 2019-20 season, which saw the Gryphons compete at three different Opens during the month of November, with stops at McMaster (Nov. 3), Ryerson (Nov. 10) and York (Nov, 17), respectively.
 
For a second consecutive season, the University of Guelph will serve as hosts of the OUA Wrestling Championships, giving the 2019-20 crop of Gryphon varsity wrestlers the opportunity to once again take home some hardware on their home mats when Guelph hosts the conference championships on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020.

The Canadian university wrestling season will culminate over the course of two days in St. Catharines as Brock hosts the 2020 U SPORTS Wrestling Championships on Feb. 21 & 22.
 
"Our success this year will come down to our preparation leading up to OUA's and nationals," says Doug Cox, a two-time Olympian ('88 & '96) and a member of Wrestling Canada's Hall of Fame (inducted 2005), who has overseen the Guelph Gryphons varsity wrestling program since 1996. "On the men's side, there is an exceptional amount of parody this season, in that, every weight class seems to have three or four different athletes capable of taking home the gold at OU's or U SPORTS. Our women's team has had a lot of turnover and will be re-building this year, but at the same time, we are also really excited about some of the talent we have on our women's 2019-20 roster. We'll do everything we can to be ready come February. Then it's just a matter of stepping up to the plate in the big tournaments."
 
GRYPHONS MEN'S WRESTLING - 2019-20 PREVIEW
 
On the men's side, the Gryphons boast plenty of talented, proven veterans, led by Xander Chaves, a fifth-year landscape architecture major from Guelph, is back for his final season as a Gryphon. 

Last year, Chaves became the first Gryphons men's wrestler in three years to be crowned national champion after earning a gold medal at the U SPORTS Championships in Calgary in the men's 72kg weight class. Chaves, who attended high school locally at Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute (G.C.V.I.), now begins the challenging task of trying to repeat as a national champion in what is one of the most competitive weight classes on the entire men's side.
 
Chaves, who represented Team Canada at the U23 World Championships in Romania in the fall of 2018, will be adding the Canadian Olympic trials to his schedule this December (6 & 7) as he heads to Niagara Falls to measure himself against the best wrestlers in the country.
 
Another key member of the Gryphons men's wrestling team is Job Reinhart, a two-sport athlete at U of G (football and wrestling) who, like Chaves, is a local product (G.C.V.I.) and returns for his fifth and final season.

After yet another strong season on the football field, where he was named an OUA Second Team All-Star at linebacker, Reinhart now turns his attention to the wrestling mat, where the landscape architecture native has also put together an impressive career. Two seasons ago, Reinhart was named Outstanding Wrestler at the 2017-18 OUA Championships after winning the gold medal in the men's 100kg weight class. On February 23, 2019, Reinhart added to his collection by earning a bronze medal at the U SPORTS Wrestling Championships in Calgary (100kg). Two months after winning a national bronze in wrestling, Reinhart was selected by the Calgary Stampeders in the 2019 CFL Draft. Needless to say, in Reinhart, the Gryphons boast one of the most athletic wrestlers in the country, with the two-sport start now in his final season of eligibility, looking to cap off his Gryphon wrestling career with yet another trip to the podium.
 
This season, the Gryphons men's wrestling team also welcomes back Kyle Robinson, a former national bronze medalist in 2016-17 who returns to the program after a two-year hiatus.

As a rookie in 2016-17, Robinson earned a silver medal at the OUA Wrestling Championships in the men's 57kg weight class and followed that up with a bronze at nationals. The English major from Georgetown, Ontario is now fully recovered from a previous knee injury and provides the U of G men's team with an athlete capable of reaching the podium at both provincials and nationals.
 
Sophomore Josh Rimando returns for his second season with the Gryphons after a promising rookie campaign in 2018-19 that saw the Niagara Falls native impress at nationals, where he defeated OUA silver medalist Brody Collison (Algoma). Rimando, a 19-year-old criminal justice major, also earned a silver medal in March of 2019 in Saskatoon at the 2019 Junior Canadian Championships.
 
The 2019-20 recruiting class for the Gryphons is one of the most promising in years, with incoming standout freshman Xavier Gaines headlining an impressive crop of Gryphon rookies. Gaines, an 18-year-old product of Turner Fenton Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario, joins the Gryphons men's wrestling team after earning the title of Junior Provincial champion in the spring of 2019. Described by head coach Doug Cox as a phenomenal athlete, Gaines will compete in the men's 57kg weight class with the Gryphons after earning the title of OFSAA silver medalist (54kg) during his high school wrestling career.
 
Another talented rookie, who arrives at U of G as a Junior Provincial champion, is Pierre Arabadjian, a 19-year-old local product from John F. Ross who will compete in the men's 68kg weight class.
 
GRYPHONS WOMEN'S WRESTLING - 2019-20 PREVIEW
 
Youth is the main theme for the 2019-20 edition of the Guelph Gryphons women's varsity wrestling team, with the bulk of the roster featuring student-athletes in either their first or second year of eligibility.

The Gryphon women, who finished 2nd in the overall team standings at the OUA Wrestling Championships a season ago, are led by Hannah Little, a fourth-year ecology student from Shelburne, Ontario who earned an OUA silver medal in 2018-19 and also just narrowly missed out on reaching the podium at nationals with her 4th-place finish at the U SPORTS Wrestling Championships in Calgary.
 
Second-year bio-medical science major Avery Cameron (Springwater, ON) returns for her sophomore season after having earned a silver medal at the Junior Nationals in Saskatoon in the spring of 2019. Cameron also recently returned from a trip to Budapest in the fall of 2019 where she represented Canada while competing in the U23 World Championships.
 
Esmee Hotson, a second-year water resources engineering major, will look to follow up an impressive rookie campaign from a season ago where the Fergus, Ontario native took home an OUA bronze medal (women's 59kg) en route to being named the team's Most Improved Player.
 
Rookie Jayden Sparks, a psychology major from Cobourg, Ontario, has impressed early in her debut season.

Sparks arrives at U of G as a junior provincial champion in the 59kg weight class. The future for the Gryphons women's wrestling program looks bright with the arrival of a pair of talented twin sisters. First-year wrestlers Mariel and Eliana Mendoza (Sarnia, ON) possess the type of talent and athleticism that could earn them regular appearances on the podium at future OUA championships.
 
The Gryphons have also made a key addition to their coaching staff, with Pan Am bronze medalist Dalton Webb coming on board as an assistant for the 2019-20 season, joining an already impressive list of Gryphon wrestling coaches, which includes Zoltan Hunyady, Pat Varamo and Cody Airdrie, all of whom are former national champions. The Gryphon varsity wrestling teams will measure themselves against the top OUA competition on January 11 at the Brock Invitational. On January 18, Guelph will host one of the most anticipated wrestling meets of the calendar year as top talent, from both sides of the border, descend on the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre for the 2020 edition of the Guelph Open. Following the Junior Provincials (Jan. 25) and Western Invitational (Jan. 26), the university championship season will officially get underway as the Gryphons host the 2020 OUA Wrestling Championships on Feb. 1.