The University of Saskatchewan Huskies compete within the Canada West Universities Athletic Association conference as part of Canadian Interuniversity Sport. In order to win a CIS championship, which is top honours in the country’s university athletics, teams must qualify and win their conference’s playoffs, and win the CIS playoffs — the only exception in qualifying for playoffs is that the host school automatically competes. Other conferences in the CIS include the Ontario University Athletics, the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec and the Atlantic University Sport.

Coming off the 2010-11 season, the Huskies saw a few of their teams put up their strongest showings in history. This year, a few of the Huskies’ teams have rosters in place to win conference championships and some star players to break national records. Other teams, of course, will finish at the bottom of their division as they have young rosters and are rebuilding for the future.

Track and Field

On the field, the Huskies will be much weaker after losing two international-calibre athletes and one Canada West record holder this year.

Andrew Smith and Taryn Suttie, who both competed in China this summer for Canada at the World University Games, are not returning.

Smith and Suttie are the current CIS record holders in men’s and women’s shot put, respectively. Suttie’s record throw is 15.72 metres and Smith’s is 18.48 metres.

In addition, Taylor Petrucha has completed his five years of eligibility. He is the Canada West record holder in the pole vault with a jump of 5.22 metres.

Nolan Machiskinic and Lane Britnell will lead this year’s field team. Machiskinic finished third in the Canada West men’s shot put last year with a throw of 15.40 metres while Britnell finished first in the pole vault with a jump 5.15 metres

On the track, the team will be strong with the return of three former Huskies.

Jodi Souter, also a strong cross country athlete who took a year off last year, has come back to compete in the 1500m and 3000m runs in what will be her final year. Keegan Sharp, a pentathlon competitor, spent a term in Great Britain last year and will return this year to improve upon his fourth place finish in the 60m hurdles two years ago. And Julene Friesen, who also spent a term away from Saskatchewan last year in Australia, will return to help the women’s relay team win a Canada West gold — something she did in 2009.