GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The University of Providence men's wrestling team will compete in the Cascade Collegiate Conference Wrestling Tournament this weekend. The two-day event will kick off on Friday at 12:00 p.m. in Havre, Mont.

"We're very excited," head coach Steve Komac said. "We've talked all year about the improvements we've made. They've been noticeable lately which has been fun. We've focused all year on just taking one match at a time. We're not trying to make things too big."

The Argos are coming into the dual with a lot of momentum on their side. The team has won four conference duals a row, including a thrilling 18-16 win over the #8 Lights, the top-ranked team in the conference.

The Lights will host the tournament, which will feature all 12 conference teams. Four of the teams coming to the tournament are ranked, while four more, including the Argos, are receiving votes in the poll.

"Obviously beating them was a big confidence builder for our kids," Komac said. "They're a determined team. We haven't seen much of Menlo but we know they bring several good kids. They are a good tournament team. Embry-Riddle, Eastern Oregon, Southern Oregon – those are traditional programs year in and year out. Those are the teams that are competing extremely well in conference and at the national level."

The CCC will receive a total of 34 automatic qualifiers to the NAIA National Championships across all weight classes. The champion of each class will advance to the NAIA National Tournament, as well as the placements labeled below.

In addition to the automatic qualifiers, each conference also gets seven at-large selections, which allows the conference to send additional competitors to the national tournament who didn't qualify via an automatic berth.

Though the conference allotments are tight, the coaching staff believes the team is capable of qualifying multiple wrestlers for the NAIA National Wrestling Championship, which will be held on March 6-7 in Park City, Kan.

"The kids are in a great place," Komac said. "They've been wrestling well and we're proud of what they've done lately. We want to compete to our ability because we've shown recently that our ability is quite high. We want to go up there competing to our ability and we want to complete the weekend feeling like we did compete to our ability."

Friday's matches begin at noon, while Saturday's contests are set to start at 10 a.m. The championship bouts are slated for 5 p.m. on Saturday.

CCC NAIA National Championship Allotments
125 – 1st, 2nd, 3rd 
133 – 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th 
141 – 1st, 2nd 
149 – 1st, 2nd, 3rd
157 – 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th 
165 – 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th
174 – 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th 
184 – 1st, 2nd, 3rd 
197 – only first place 
285 – 1st, 2nd