Huskies enjoy the home-mat advantage

Daniel Olver is ready to host the west’s best wrestlers.

The Canada West wrestling championship is Friday and Saturday at the Education Gym on the University of Saskatchewan campus.

“It’s awesome, especially my first year of coaching,” the interim head coach says. “I couldn’t ask for a better schedule than that. Basically having the Saskatoon community behind us and supporting, it’s going to help with the momentum of the tournament, which is extremely important at CanWest in the dual meet format, where every match kind of builds up the next match. “It’s a great atmosphere.” The dual format pits school against school, wrestling from lightest to heaviest, in a round robin format. The U of S women open the tournament on Friday at 2 p.m. against the University of Regina Cougars, followed by rounds at 3 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Matches continue Saturday, with starts from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

U of S and Regina are joined by Alberta, Calgary and Winnipeg. The meet will determine conference team champions, and the top three finishers from each category qualify for the upcoming CIS championship.

“That’s the goal I’ve set for my team and, from there, you’ve got a shot at a national championship,” Olver says of his young squad, which will have 10 men and eight women competing this weekend.

Huskies medal favourites include captain Dylan Bray, Malcolm Meekins and Shane Johnson.

On the women’s side, Annie Monteith has been doing very well along with Katie Dutchak, and “from there, we’ve got some girls who are pumped up a bit,” Olver says, “so they’ll be scrapping to qualify.”