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Thirteen is indeed an unlucky number for three University of Regina Cougars athletic programs that have been discontinued, effective Monday.

The U of R has pared its number of teams from 16 to 13 after eliminating women’s and men’s wrestling and men’s volleyball.

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“I never would have thought they would have cut wrestling first, because we have the least amount of kids and we’re the most determined,” Regina’s Sara Tokarz, who recently completed her first season of university wrestling, said Monday.

“It’s just heartbreaking to see the wrestling community go down like that — through an email, not even in person.”

Photo by Don Healy / Regina Leader-Post

The cuts follow a recommendation made in last year’s Athletics Programming and Operations Report, in which it was concluded that “supporting 16 programs is unsustainable.”

By going to 13 teams, the U of R says that its program size is now in line with comparably sized institutions that compete in U Sports.