The Moose Jaw High School Wrestling Team after the Prince Albert Invitational Tournament two weeks ago.

High school wrestling is growing here in Moose Jaw and the local city-wide team is preparing to host a showcase of that growth later this week at Peacock Collegiate.

The University of Regina wrestling team will be coming into the Friendly City to host a dual meet against Minot State University on Thursday night.

“Leo McGee (head coach) from the University of Regina has noticed the increase in wrestling again in Moose Jaw and he called us to see if we were interested in hosting a dual meet,” said Ward Strueby, Peacock vice-principal.

The day is more than just the dual meet however as everything gets started at 1:00pm on Thursday when the high school wrestling team will be putting on a clinic for grade nine Peacock gym classes.  

That will be followed by a high school dual meet at 3:30pm with all the local wrestlers split up onto two teams.  After that the under grade eight wrestlers from the Kinsmen Wrestling Club will be taking over the mats for matches starting at 5:00pm.

The University dual meet between the Cougars and MSU will get underway at 6:30pm.

“We just hope to highlight the wrestling that’s taking place in Moose Jaw right now,” said Strueby.  “It’s also an opportunity for community members to come out and see what the sport has to offer.”

Admission to the event is free and hot dogs and drinks will be on sale for two dollars.

“High school wrestling has really picked up over the past three years,” added Strueby.  “I credit the work that the coaches are doing, Kelly Busch, Tom Busch and Rob Villeneuve, and also the work that Gerry Turcotte did with the club four years ago.”

The local wrestlers have found loads of success since the calendar turned over to 2014.  They were in Saskatoon last weekend for the Tommy Douglas Rumble, the high school team — which is made up of students from Peacock, Central and Vanier — picked up 32 medals in total, including two gold medals in the novice division and two in the elite division.

Click here to check out video from the elite division matches.

Two weeks ago, local wrestlers were in Prince Albert for their annual Small Communities Invitational Wrestling Tournament and collected 21 more medals with eight wrestlers picking up gold.