The Grizzlies have qualified seven wrestlers for the tournament and are ranked seventh in the final NCAA Division II National Wrestling Coaches Association Poll, released last week.
Coach Jason Ramstetter and his squad will be in search of a fifth straight top-10 finish in the tournament and with some minimal breaks, the Grizzlies could easily find themselves with a podium finish for the first time in their NCAA Division II era (1993-Present) history.
Four members of the Grizzly contingent have previous national championship experience. Juniors Evan Copeland (Las Cruces, N.M.) and Jared Deaguero (Commerce City, Colo.) and senior Casey Woodall (Morenci, Ariz.) have all earned All-America honors, which go to the top eight finishers at each weight class, at previous national championships.
Senior 174-pound James Reynolds (Monte Vista, Colo.) will also be gunning to end his career with All-America honors in this his third national championship experience.
The Grizzlies also have three redshirt freshmen making the trip in 125-pound Arsenia Barksdale (Norfolk, Va.), 141-pound Joey Deaguero (Commerce City, Colo.) and 157-pound Mike Gallegos (Alamosa, Colo.).
First round action begins at 11 a.m. (CST), Friday. The championship quarterfinals and initial consolation rounds commence at 6 p.m. (CST) that evening.
With the field of 160 wrestlers -16 in each weight class - trimmed in half by the end of the night, the tournament, featuring championship semifinals and placing matches, will resume at 10 a.m. (CST) on Saturday. The championship finals, which follow a parade of All-Americans, will commence at 7 p.m. (CST).
Those championship finals will be televised by a variety of sports networks around the country. Local viewers can catch the coverage on a tape-delay basis on Altitude Sports & Entertainment at 9:30 p.m. MST. Fans can also catch the NCAA Productions broadcast live via the internet at www.ncaasports.com/dii.
In looking at the national rankings, Woodall, Jared Deaguero and Barksdale have the best chances to win individual national titles. Woodall, a returning All-American at 197 pounds, has been ranked first in his weight class during the entire season and is riding a 15-match winning streak. Sporting a 26-8 record overall, Woodall has only been beaten once by a Division II opponent this year. That man is the top-ranked heavyweight Tervel Dlagnev of the host Lopers, favored to win the national title.
Woodall, who also qualified for the national championships at 184 pounds as a sophomore in 2004 before redshirting in 2004-05, finished eighth at last year's national championships in Findlay, Ohio.
He will face Newberry (S.C.) College's Kelly Anundson in the first round and could face Augustana (S.D.) College's Nate Buys, ranked fourth in the nation, in the quarterfinals. Woodall defeated Anundson by an 11-4 score in the semifinals of the Midwest Classic, which Woodall won, back in January.
Barksdale is also quite hot winning 13 of his last 15 matches and comes into the national tournament ranked second at 125 pounds. Named as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Freshman of the Year after a runner-up performance at the West Regional/RMAC Championships on Feb. 25, Barksdale has only lost two matches while wearing a Grizzly uniform.
Those setbacks were both to Nebraska-Kearney's top-ranked Trevor Charboneau.
Barksdale is 23-5 overall this year, but a solid 14-2 while representing the Grizzlies during the spring semester. He will face Augustana's Chris Trampe, ranked seventh nationally, in the first round.
Jared Deaguero is also ranked second in the nation at 184 pounds. He is 15-5 on the year and is coming off a title at the West Regional/RMAC Championships. Deaguero joined the Grizzly squad mid-year after a long-hiatus from collegiate wrestling.
Deaguero will be making his second career trip to the national tournament. He also went in 2003 while at the University of Northern Colorado and came home with a fourth place finish and All-America honors in the 165-pound bracket.
Copeland is making his third national tournament appearance at 165 pounds. He finished third as a redshirt freshman before failing to place after an injury plagued sophomore season.
In 2006-07, Copeland has posted a 27-11 record. He finished fourth at the West Regional/RMAC Championships after surviving a true-fourth place challenge match to punch his ticket to Kearney, where he was victorious over Nebraska-Kearney's Taylor May on Feb. 10.
Because of his fourth place finish, Copeland has a tough road ahead and will face Kutztown (Pa.) University's Kevin Kalbach in the first round. Kalbach is 15-3 on the year and won the East Regional title. He is tabbed seventh in the nation.
Copeland will then face Ashland's Eric Lakia or Upper Iowa's Mitch Norton, ranked third, in his second match. Lakia, who medically forfeited to Copeland in the consolation bracket at the Midwest Classic, was nationally-ranked earlier in the year.
Reynolds holds a 22-13 record coming into the national tournament and finished a career-best second at the West Regional/RMAC Championships. He will face Minnesota State-Moorhead's Tyler Tubbs in the first round and is guaranteed to face a nationally-ranked opponent in his second match. Potential opponents are fourth-ranked Michael Jackson of Indianapolis or seventh-ranked Quinn Tolbert of Newberry. Reynolds fell to Jackson by an 8-7 count in the quarterfinals of the Midwest Classic but beat Tolbert 4-2 to claim third place in that tournament.
Although they are inexperienced, when compared to some of their teammates, Joey Deaguero and Gallegos have the potential to fare quite well. Deaguero, 30-13 this season, leads the team in wins and finished third at the West Regional/RMAC Championships. Taking a physical beating in that tournament, Deaguero battled back to claim a national tournament spot and will now face Mercyhurst's (Pa.) J.J. Zanetta, ranked seventh in the nation, in his first round match.
Top-ranked Kyle Evans of Central Oklahoma, a perfect 35-0 on the year, looms as a potential quarterfinal opponent.
Gallegos dropped out of the national rankings after a fourth place finish at the West Regional/RMAC Championships but still comes into nationals with a fine 20-7 record. He also appears to have a tough draw and will face the nation's top-ranked Antonio Guerra of Findlay (Ohio). Guerra, the defending national champion at 149 pounds, edged Gallegos by a 6-4 score in the Midwest Classic Championship, the first tournament that Gallegos was in a Grizzly uniform for.
The Grizzlies have qualified 26 wrestlers for the national tournament in the last three years alone and had five wrestlers, including Woodall, earn All-America honors last year. The Grizzlies finished ninth in the team standings.
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