Cobra Wrestling will host the 'Battle of the Borders'

Two university-level wrestling teams will compete in the "Battle of the Borders", to be hosted at the Weyburn Comprehensive School gym on Wednesday, Jan. 4, by the Weyburn Cobra Wrestling Club.

Competing in the university men's wrestling tournament is Minot State and the University of Regina. Admission is $5 per person and there will be a small canteen on site.

"We have planned with Leo (the University of Regina coach) for this event for a couple of years now, and we are enthusiastic about now hosting it," said Ken Kot, Cobra wrestling coach.

Kot added that the Cobra Wrestling Club is the biggest club per capita in Saskatchewan, tied with the one in Saskatoon. "Our club has served Weyburn for 12 years, and we want to be one of the bigger sports in the community. This event will create awareness of the sport, and help us grow and expand."

"For us, we will wrestle it as a competition, and will score the whole match," said Robin Ersland, head coach with the Minot State University Beavers. The Beavers are a fairly young team, only in their second year.

"The reason we are doing this is because of the work done by the Cobra Wrestling Club," said Leo McGree, head coach with the University of Regina Cougars. The Cougars are ranked in first place in the Canadian Interuniversity School league. They also have several wrestlers who are ranked first in the nation for their weight class.

"This is an opportunity for both teams to bring our sport to the rural communities and increase awareness of it," said McGree. He noted that it is especially important to have rural roots in the sport, as when the University of Regina first won its national title in 1979, the majority of its team was from rural communities in Saskatchewan.

The goal is to have 10 weight classes of competition. Of course one of the main differences for the two wrestling teams is that the University of Regina weighs their members in kilograms, and Minot State weighs their members in pounds.

The other difference is the style of wrestling that each team is used to. "When we come to Canada we wrestle international style, and this is the only time of the year we wrestle this way, unless we have wrestlers trying out for the Olympics or the Worlds," explained Ersland.

For the American wrestling team, "freestyle (or international style) isn't our weekly way of wrestling, we do collegiate-style wrestling," said Ersland.

An international style tournaments is when wrestlers compete in a best two out of three matches; while collegiate style has accumulative points, and they wrestle all three matches.

There is also a scoring difference, as "collegiate style is scored when there is control over your opponent, while freestyle is scored more about exposure of the back," explained Ersland.

"It is still all the same moves and the same defenses," said Kot, when asked about the two different styles. The Cobra wrestlers compete in international style.

Having to wrestle differently than what they are used to can be interesting. "Last year, when we went up to Regina, they kicked our butts," said Ersland. "We are basically trying to teach our guys in the middle of the season to change the rules. But Leo and his team have a similar problem when they come to the States, wrestling our style."

"The Minot team does an outstanding job of wrestling, and we need to take full advantage of that by accepting the challenge," said McGree. "This is the best of men's wrestling from both countries, and we are hoping people come out and support it."

The wrestling match will definitely be "good for people of Weyburn to be exposed to this level of wrestling," said Ersland.

So far this season, the Minot State Beavers are undefeated with a record of four wins; and the University of Regina Cougars have won one game and lost two. Both teams have also competed in a couple of tournaments, with excellent showings from their wrestlers.

Information on both teams are available on the website for the Cougars and the Beavers.