Carlton wrestler Jude Bray (black singlet) holds down St. Mary's Ashton Heffernan as the referee behind calls for the pinfall victory. (Nick Nielsen/paNOW Staff)

By Nick Nielsen

wrestling showcase

Wrestling comes to Prince Albert in third annual St. Mary’s Duel Invitational Wrestling Meet

Feb 14, 2025 | 10:49 AM

The sport of wrestling is a proud one in Saskatchewan, and there was a great showcase at St. Mary’s High School in Prince Albert on Thursday when they hosted the St. Mary’s Duel Invitational Wrestling Meet.

In a wrestling duel, teams will line up their wrestlers from their lightest to heaviest, and similar weighted wrestlers will wrestle each other from opposing teams to try and earn their team points.

• Pinfall: 3 points
• If a wrestler pins their opponent’s shoulders to the ground at any time, their team gets three points
• Technical Win: 2 points
• If a wrestler gains a 10-point advantage over their opponent, the match instantly ends and the winning wrestler’s team gets two points
• Judge’s Decision: 1 point
• If a wrestler wins and has the lead when time expires after two periods, then the winning wrestler’s team is awarded one point

Three teams participated, a full team from St. Mary’s, a full team from Swift Current, and a team comprised of smaller wrestling teams in the area including Carlton here in Prince Albert, Carrot River, Rosetown, and Nipawin.

Tate McDougall is the assistant coach for the team with St. Mary’s and he said the event could not have gone well.

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“We really try to bring the fun atmosphere to this Meet. It’s really different from the other ones, where it’s not that traditional style wrestling meet. It’s a Dual Meet, but we’re bringing a couple teams in. We have some different elements to try to get our student body involved, get our community involved with what it is, the walkouts and playing the music doesn’t really happen at traditional wrestling meets, but we try to bring that that fun atmosphere to make it an accessible sport to everybody.”

A St. Mary’s wrestler performs an ankle pick takedown that landed a Swift Current wrestler directly on their back, leading to a pinfall win. (Nick Nielsen/paNOW Staff)

Results

Dual One: St. Mary’s vs. Swift Current

The closest dual of the day came off the start between the two full teams. The best match of the day saw St. Mary’s wrestler Denis Orsar wrestle Swift Current’s Waylon Ratzlaff with both men wrestling around the 82kg weight class. The match went back and forth Orsar had the lead heading into the second period.

Ratzlaff would score a takedown midway through the second to technically take the lead 10-10 as ties go to the last wrestler to score. Late in the second round, Ratzlaff would shoot for a double leg takedown, but Orsar would hook an arm and secure Ratzlaff’s head for a great reversal throw, landing a four-point takedown and into a pin to secure a big three points for St. Mary’s.

Going into the final match of the dual, St. Mary’s had a 23-22 lead. St. Mary’s would send Davina Okonkwo, and Swift Current would send out Carlton wrestler Kinslee Cousins to wrestle as a fill in. Cousins would earn a pin in the first round, giving a big three points to the Swift Current team to win 25-23.

Dual Two: Swift Current vs. Rurals

Swift Current got out to an early lead with two pins and a technical victory to go up 8-0. The rural teams started to battle back with two technical wins first from Rosetown’s Braxton Bell, and second from Carlton’s Darren Schellenberg who brought a whole new source of energy into the building with his first of two wins on the day.

The Swift Current team pulled away in the second half of the dual after three straight pins from Talon Tumback, Cade Banman, and Seth Mannouch, and the rural team couldn’t come back. With Carlton’s Kinslee Cousins picking up another pin for the Swift Current team in the end, Swift Current won 26-14.

Dual Three: St. Mary’s vs. Rurals

The third dual started off with three matches between Prince Albert schools St. Mary’s and Carlton. Justin Theoret won the first match via pinfall over Carlton’s Yonathan Kilfay, but then Carlton got the win right back when Jude Bray pinned Ashton Heffernan. In the third match between Carlton and St. Mary’s, it was Darren Schellenberg vs. Spencer Larson.

In that match, Schellenberg was down eight points near the end of the first round but battled back to stay in the match. Larson would then get a nine-point lead in the second, only needing one more point to win, but he’d go for a double leg takedown that Schellenberg was able to fight off. The two would get into a 50/50 battle, and Schellenberg won it when he managed to push back into Larson’s takedown attempt, sending Larson to his shoulders and earning the win for a very excited Schellenberg.

From there, St. Mary’s would dominate the rest of the way with a run of 12 pins in the next 15 matches, and they would win the dual 41-14.

With the schools getting the week off for Family Day, wrestlers are now getting ready for Regionals to determine the top 12 wrestlers in each weight class in the province for the year-end Provincials. Saskatoon and Regina host their own Regional tournament, while the rest of the province will meet in Carrot River on March 1.