After being on the road for the first two months of the season, the Utah Valley University wrestling team hits the home mats for the first time Saturday when it hosts the UVU Open in the PE Building.
This year's tournament will mark the eighth annual installment of the UVU Open, and action is slated to begin on four mats at 9 a.m. Live results can be followed throughout the competition by visiting Track Wrestling.
Wrestlers from around 21 schools are scheduled to compete Saturday, as the tournament will feature grapplers from Arizona State, Bakersfield, Boise State, Cal Poly, Grand Canyon, Northern Colorado, Oregon State, Stanford, UVU, Wyoming, Bacone, Cal Baptist, Colorado Mesa, Embry Riddle, Glendale CC, Great Falls, Menlo, Northwest College, San Francisco State, Western State and Western Wyoming.
Mainly backups and redshirts will take to the mats Saturday. Scheduled to compete for the Wolverines are sophomore Abel Gomez (184 pounds) and redshirt freshman Koleton Hardy (157), as well as 10 other wrestlers who will be competing unattached at the tournament. Those unattached grapplers are 125-pounders Tyler Scott and Josh Temple, 133-pounder Jarod Maynes, 149-pounders Brayden Humpherys and DJ Argyle, 157-pounders Raider Lofthouse and Michael Suwyn, 174-pounder Jesse Christensen, 184-pounder Will Sumner and heavyweight Dustin Dennison.
The Wolverines enter the tournament off a strong showing at the Reno Tournament of Champions on Dec. 21. There, junior 133-pounder Jade Rauser led the way by placing second in his weight class with a 4-1 clip. Fellow junior Ross Taylor (184) also finished in the top six of his weight class, as he took sixth. Dennison too took sixth at heavyweight while competing unattached.
Redshirt freshman Jed Mellen led the way for Utah Valley at last season's UVU Open by winning the 133-pound title while competing unattached. Junior 157-pounder Logan Addis too had a nice showing as he took second, while Taylor, Aryton Almberg (197) and Jordan Karst (285) also placed in the top four of the tournament.
Saturday's tournament is anticipated to conclude around 4 or 5 p.m.
Up next for the Wolverines
Following the Open, UVU remains home for the entire month of January with four upcoming home dual meets on the horizon. The Wolverines begin the stretch by taking on conference foe and 21st-ranked Wyoming the following Saturday, Jan. 17, and follow with contests against Air Force (Jan. 23), as well as back-to-back Pac-12 foes in No. 19 Oregon State (Jan. 30) and Stanford (Jan. 31).
James Warnick is an assistant sports information director at Utah Valley University. For more information about Wolverine athletics, visit WolverineGreen.com.