Top notch

Cougars wrestler Connor Malloy calls it a career

Ed Kapp
Sports Writer

One of the University of Regina’s top wrestlers for the past four years can’t remember too much of his early days on the mat.

“The first couple years are kind of blurred together,” Connor Malloy said. “I liked it, though.”

Although Malloy can’t recall the specifics of his introduction to wrestling, he does remember having success in the sport from the very beginning.

“One of the reasons that I liked it when I was young was because I, kind of, naturally took to it,” Malloy recounted. “I had success and it got me hooked.”

Over the years, Malloy – who competed on the international stage for the first time as an 11th grader at Dr. Martin LeBoldus – has continued to find success on the mat.

Malloy – who has wrestled across Asia, Europe, and North America – won bronze and silver medals at the CIS championships in his first and second campaigns as a Cougar, respectively.

In the time since Malloy earned a silver medal in his second season as a Cougar, he has claimed first-place honours at the competition in both the 2011 and 2012 campaigns. After four successful seasons with the U of R, Malloy’s first-place finish at the CIS championships this year officially marked the end of his wrestling career as a Cougar.

Although it seems that you would be hard-pressed to find a better way to finish your collegiate wrestling career than claiming a gold medal at the highest level of the sport in the Canadian university system, Malloy doesn’t necessarily share that view.

“Everyone was really upset,” said Malloy, referencing his squad’s second-place showing at the CIS championships. “It was a very quiet drive back to the hotel. To be in second place by two points is pretty tough to swallow.”

Unfortunately for Malloy, who is intending on traveling to China as a part of a student-exchange program in the future, he won’t have the opportunity to help his squad win first place at the CIS championships in 2013.

But Malloy isn’t finished with wrestling just yet.

Malloy is now preparing to compete at the forthcoming Senior National Wrestling Championships in St. Catharine’s, Ont. – a competition that the Regina product finished fourth in last year. From there, the two-time CIS champion will get a better idea of what his future in wrestling holds.

“What’s going to happen next is going to be based on how I perform there,” Malloy offered. “I’m just, kind of, playing things by ear right now, I guess … It will be a tougher tournament than the CIS, but I’m always up for a challenge.”