For the second consecutive year, the St. Mary Marauders are bringing the spotlight onto the sport of wrestling.
The Marauders hosted their second annual wrestling dual on Monday afternoon consisting of three teams. Outlook/Carrot River/Nipawin formed one team, while the Carlton Crusaders and St. Mary Marauders also competed.
The event started at 1:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon with St. Mary taking on the Outlook/Carrot River/Nipawin in a duel. The middle duel featured Carlton against Outlook/Carrot River/Nipawin with the evening closing with Carlton versus St. Mary.
Marauder wrestling head coach Tate McDougall says the event was important to get students to watch and participate in the sport of wrestling.
“Lining up teams to get here, making it visible to the public. (It’s) super important to us here, making it visible to our student body too. This is our second annual tournament and we had actually moved it back in timing from last year so that we could have student viewership. We find that really important to get that into our community and just to build the sport in general with our wrestlers too.”
McDougall, who has organized the event the last two years, says teams are always ready and willing to make the trip to compete.
“In terms of getting people to bring their teams down, they are almost asking ‘when’s the next event and when can we get people down. We’re chomping at the bit to get more wrestling in this province.’ When I send out invites for our invitational it is nearly instant replies and we’re coming. How many can we bring?”
With students packed around the railing in the upper viewing area and the bleachers near full capacity, McDougall says the event did a tremendous job of giving the sport of wrestling exposure.
“For the community to see and be a part of it and to experience it which is just not something that happens often it means everything to us. This is our sport right, we have multi-sport athletes but this is our sport. this is what we bring to the community and it’s not necessarily one from around Prince Albert that’s getting itself into the spotlight so we’re just glad to bring it into the spotlight.”
