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Eight current and former student athletes from the University of Saskatchewan will head to Niagara Falls this weekend to compete at the Olympic Trials for wrestling.
On the women’s side, Natasha Fox and Katie Dutchak will compete in the 50 kg, Taylor Follensbee will compete in the 76 kg class, while Berit Johnson is set for the 68 kg class.
Over on the men’s side, Hunter Lee and Andrew Johnson will represent Huskie Athletics out of the 86 kg class, Noah Bertholot in the 97 kg, and Jackson Serna at 125 kg.
Johnson, Fox, Bertholot, and Follensbee are former Huskies, while Serna is a U of S student and red-shirts with the Huskie program.
The competition is open draw, seeded on how the athletes made out in both National and International competition this season. They’ll battle in a double bracket format, with the top two wrestling in a best two-out-of-three competition.
The winners will then head to the Pan-Am qualifier to represent Canada, with the top two making the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan from July 9 to August 9.
Huskie Athletics assistant wrestling coach and high performance coach with Saskatchewan Wrestling, Shane Bradley, said these trials will be a good measuring stick for his athletes.
“They’re all coming from different levels of experience — (They) want to see where they’re at as far as getting the opportunity to compete in the trials, and looking forward to either (the 2020 Olympics), or the one four years from that.”
When it comes to the varsity level athletes, Bradley said they’re already competing at the national, or international level.
The varsity level gives the athletes the chance to jump up to the higher echelon of sport, including the Olympics.
With the Huskies program being the only varsity level wrestling program in the province, Bradley said he’s excited to be representing Saskatchewan.
“We have an opportunity to ensure that all of our Saskatchewan athletes are coming to the University of Saskatchewan. We really want to be a provincial based varsity program.”
Seven of the eight athletes are from the province, while Lee is originally from Flin Flon, Manitoba. Lee trained with the Junior Huskie Program, making the U of S the only program he’s ever been coached by.
The trials will be held Friday to Sunday at the Scotiabank Convention Centre in Niagara Falls, Ontario.