THIS WEEK IN COUGAR ATHLETICS
At Home – Friday
Men’s Basketball vs. Winnipeg, 7:00 p.m. (CKHS)
At Home – Saturday
Men’s Basketball vs. Winnipeg, 7:00 p.m. (CKHS)
At Home – Sunday
(if necessary) Men’s Basketball vs. Winnipeg, 7:00 p.m. (CKHS)
On the Road – Friday
Swimming at CIS Championships, Day 1 (Quebec City, Que.)
Wrestling at CIS Championships, Day 1 (St. Catharines, Ont.)
Track & Field at Canada West Championships, Day 1 (Saskatoon, Sask.)
Women’s Hockey at UBC, 7:00 p.m. PST (Vancouver, B.C.)
On the Road – Saturday
Swimming at CIS Championships, Day 2 (Quebec City, Que.)
Wrestling at CIS Championships, Day 2 (St. Catharines, Ont.)
Track & Field at Canada West Championships, Day 2 (Saskatoon, Sask.)
Women’s Hockey at UBC, 7:00 p.m. PST (Vancouver, B.C.)
On the Road – Sunday
Swimming at CIS Championships, Day 3 (Quebec City, Que.)
(if necessary) Women’s Hockey at UBC, 3:00 p.m. PST (Vancouver, B.C.)
Men’s Basketball – The Cougars finished the Canada West schedule with an 11-9 record after a weekend split with Saskatchewan that saw them lose on Friday, but come back for an 84-74 win on Saturday. The win solidified fifth place in the Pioneer Division for the U of R, and with it a home date against Winnipeg in a best-of-three Canada West play-in series in what will be the first men’s basketball postseason games played in Regina since the 2008-09 season. The Cougars and Winnipeg will tip off at 7 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport with a third game – if necessary – to be played on Sunday, also at 7 p.m. The winner of the series will meet Thompson Rivers in the Canada West quarterfinals.
Swimming – Five Cougars will represent the University of Regina at the 2016 CIS Championships this weekend in Quebec City, including Noah Choboter, Brent Hill, Lexy King, Eva Madar, and Chris Myers. Choboter and Madar are the U of R’s top-ranked swimmers coming into the meet, with Choboter being ranked in the top 12 in the CIS in each of the three backstroke events – including the 50 back, where his time of 25.69 seconds is the seventh fastest registered by a CIS athlete this season. Madar, a butterfly specialist, is ranked ninth in the 200-metre butterfly and 10th in the 100 fly.
Wrestling (Women’s CIS Ranking: No. 7 / Men’s CIS Ranking: No. 9) – Nine Cougars will wrestle at the CIS Championships hosted by Brock University this weekend. Leading the women’s side are veterans Kayla Brodner and Kristine Longeau, both Canada West gold medalists who will be joined by third-year grappler Indyhra Linares and rookie Erica Ravelo. The men will send five wrestlers, including conference gold medalist Gaelan Malloy. Also wrestling on the men’s side this weekend are Sean Belisle, Lucas Hoffert, and newcomers Daniel Amberson and Waylon Decoteau.
Track & Field – The Cougars will make the short trip north to Saskatoon this weekend to compete in the Canada West Championships at the Saskatoon Field House. The men’s team enters the meet with two athletes ranked in the top three of the 60-metre dash, with Tevaughn Campbell as the top-ranked athlete with a season-best time of 6.78 seconds and Kahlen Branning seeded No. 3 (6.94 s). Branning is also ranked No. 3 in the 300-metre dash with a seed time of 34.28 seconds, while Ahmed Alkabary has the conference’s top performance in the long jump (7.17m) and Arthur Ward ranks second in the triple jump with a season-best effort of 14.22 metres. Joy Becker leads the women’s team, as she’s ranked second in the long jump (6.01 s) and third in the 60-metre dash (7.67 s).
Women’s Hockey – The Cougars travel to Vancouver this weekend to take on the No. 8-ranked UBC Thunderbirds in a best-of-three Canada West semifinal series. The Cougars earned a spot in the semifinals by sweeping the sixth-seeded Calgary Dinos on home ice last weekend, taming the Dinos with 4-1 and 1-0 wins. Chelsea Perepeluk, Caitlin Dempsey, Kylie Gavelin and Jaycee Magwood scored in the opener, while Bailey Braden’s goal and 29 saves by Toni Ross were enough to put the Dinos away on Saturday.
Women’s Basketball (CIS Ranking: No. 5) – In front of a packed CKHS both nights, the Cougars and provincial rival Saskatchewan split a thrilling two-game weekend set. Regina took an 83-78 win on Friday night to set up a winner-takes-all showdown for first place in the Pioneer Division on Saturday, but the Huskies pulled out an 81-72 win the next night. The Cougars’ second-place finish in the division gives them a first-round bye and home court for a best-of-three Canada West quarterfinal series against Calgary, which is scheduled to begin next Friday, Mar. 4.
Men’s Volleyball – The Cougars closed out the 2015-16 season with two road losses at Saskatchewan, as the Huskies won in three sets on Friday and in four sets on Saturday. They were the final matches in a U of R uniform for Andre Borgeaud, Jacques Borgeaud, and Matthew Lueck – and all three leave significant marks on the school’s record book. Jacques Borgeaud once again broke the U of R’s single-season record for digs this year (238) and finishes as the school’s all-time leader in career digs (950) and sets played (360). Andre Borgeaud retires as the U of R’s career leader in service aces (56), while Lueck finishes second in career aces (48) and in the school’s top ten in both kills and digs.
Women’s Volleyball – The 2015-16 season finished for the Cougars last weekend at Saskatchewan, where they lost twice to the Huskies to close out the conference schedule. The lone fifth-year player on this year’s team, Tori Glynn finishes her career as the only player in school history to record at least 750 kills and 750 digs since the rally point was instituted prior to the 1999-00 season. Glynn’s career total of 774 digs ranks second in the U of R record book.
(Courtesy Braden Konschuh/Cougar Athletics)
