@UNCBearsWrestle Returns Home to Face Beavers

Calendar

Oct 31

6 p.m. MT

Wrestling

vs Blue and Gold Scrimmage

Nov 8

TBD

Wrestling

at NC State

Nov 9

TBD

Wrestling

at North Carolina

Nov 22

TBD

Wrestling

at Nebraska Kearney

Dec 6

TBD

Wrestling

at SIUE

Dec 19

6 p.m. MT

Wrestling

vs Campbell University

Dec 30

TBD

Wrestling

vs Cal Baptist

Jan 3

TBD

Wrestling

at UT Chattanooga

Jan 11

2 p.m. MT

Wrestling

vs Penn

After a successful start to 2019, Northern Colorado wrestling returns home to take on Oregon State, Friday at Bank of Colorado Arena.

"I'm looking forward to being back home," head coach Troy Nickerson said. "I feel like our team is wrestling the best they have all season and hopefully that continues. I think the guys are feeling good right now. They feel good about going out and competing with anybody. I think they know where they are at this point of the season and they're trying to get better every match."

UNC is coming off a historic performance at the Southern Scuffle in Chattanooga, Tenn., with Rico Montoya placing second in the 125 lb weight class. Montoya becomes the highest placer in program history, topping his own fourth place finish at the 2018 Scuffle. Jacob Seely placed fifth in the 197 lb class to give the Bears two placers at the tournament for the second consecutive season.

As a team, UNC had its best finish at the Scuffle, placing 11^th in the team standings. The Bears were tied for 12^th last season.

The success at the Scuffle helped Montoya and Seely solidify their position in the wrestling media rankings. Montoya is ranked No. 17 by Trackwrestling.com, Intermat.com and W.I.N. Magazine, while moving into Flowrestling.com and The Open Mat's rankings at No. 20.
For the season, Montoya has a 9-3 overall record and is 2-2 in dual matches. Montoya leads the team this season with three tech falls and four major decisions.

Seely earns his highest ranking from The Open Mat, who lists Seely at No. 11. Seely is also slated at No. 16 by W.I.N. and No.17 by Trackwrestling, Flowrestling and Intermat. This season, Seely has posted a 9-2 record, going 5-1 in dual matches.

UNC's record stands at 2-4 this season and the team looks to get back in the win column Friday night.

"It's nice having a Power 5 school coming into our gym," Nickerson added. "They have a couple of really tough wrestlers. Hopefully, we can keep wrestling hard and pull off a win."

Scouting the Beavers
Oregon State heads to Greeley with a 1-3 dual record and 1-0 in the Pac-12. The Beavers started 2019 by hosting No. 6 Michigan in Corvallis, dropping the dual 33-8 against the Wolverines. Oregon State won two matches, coming from Ronne Bresser and Hunter Willits. Bresser is ranked among the best in nation at 125 lb, listed at No. 3 by several publications. Willits is also ranked at 157 lb, coming in at No. 18 by The Open Mat. At 285, the Beavers' Amar Dhesi is ranked as high as No. 4 by The Open Mat.

Northern Colorado and Oregon State met last season in Corvallis, Ore., with the Beavers topping the Bears 34-10. UNC won two matches, with Keilan Torres and Dylan Gabel getting tech falls for the team.

Following the Bears
Northern Colorado faces Oregon State on Friday, Jan. 11^th with the first bout starting at 7 pm(MST). Tickets can be purchased to the dual against the Beavers by calling the UNC Ticket Office at 970.351.4849 or online by clicking the link here.

The dual will be streamed live on PlutoTV (Ch. 205) and live scoring will be available through Trackwrestling.com. Follow the dual on Twitter for live updates and results with @UNCBearsWrestle.