OREM, Utah – The Utah Valley University wrestling team will officially open its 2021-22 campaign on Sunday by heading to Greeley, Colorado to take part at the UNC Duals. The Wolverines will first face a trio of non-Division I opponents on Sunday before capping the day with a Big 12 dual against the host Northern Colorado Bears.
 
UVU will open the day by facing Doane University at 9:30 a.m. The Wolverines will then take on North Idaho College at 11 a.m., before wrestling Northwest Kansas Technical College at 2 p.m. Utah Valley will then close the UNC Duals by facing the host Bears at 4 p.m. All four contests will be contested at UNC's Bank of Colorado Arena and live results will also be available for each dual by visiting TrackWrestling.com. UVU's opening dual against Doane and the last against UNC will also be streamed live on FloWrestling (subscription required). Unfortunately, UVU's contests against NIC and NWKTC will not be streamed as only one mat of action will be streamed throughout the day. The NIC and NWKTC will attempted to be streamed on the @UVUwre Instagram account. 
 
"We're looking forward to Sunday," head UVU coach Greg Williams said. "Northern Colorado is loaded. They got a couple of transfers last year and have a pretty similar team to us; so that one should be a fun match. We'll also have three matches before that one that will give us a chance to wrestle a combination of our starters and the guys who are right behind them. Those will be a good opportunity to for us to see where we are at, and we can't wait to get the season officially underway on Sunday."

The Wolverines will open the year ranked 28th on the FloWrestling Team Tournament and 29th on the WIN Magazine Tournament Power Index poll. During the condensed 2020-21 campaign, UVU posted its highest NCAA Championship team finish in program history by placing 21st with 20.5 total points. The Wolverines also went 2-4 in duals last season with wins over No. 22 Stanford and California Baptist.
 
The Wolverines welcome back a pair of returning All-Americans in redshirt senior Demetrius Romero and redshirt junior Taylor LaMont. After taking sixth at the 2021 NCAA Championships at 174 pounds this past spring, Romero will drop back down to compete at 165 pounds this year while LaMont will remain at 125, a weight where he finished fifth in the nation a season ago.
 
Both grapplers are also three-time NCAA qualifiers for the Wolverines and Romero is a two-time Big 12 champion, as he won the Big 12 crown at 174 last season and also at 165 in 2019. LaMont, who too reached the Big 12 finals a season ago, will open the season ranked as high as sixth nationally by FloWrestling, while Romero is currently ranked eighth nationally by InterMat. The two grapplers combined to go 32-5 on the mat in 2020-21, as Romero went 19-2 while LaMont finished with a 13-3 clip. LaMont is scheduled to miss Sunday's opener, however, as he wrestled his way to a fifth-place finish at the U23 World Championships at 55 kg in Greco-Roman competition on Nov. 1-2 in Belgrade, Serbia. 
 
The Wolverines will welcome back four returning NCAA qualifiers this season in all, as redshirt freshman Ty Smith too is back as well as sophomore Cameron Hunsaker. Smith is scheduled to bump up a weight class and compete at 141 pounds in 2021-22, while Hunsaker will remain at 149. Smith went 8-7 at 133 pounds last year while Hunsaker compiled a 10-9 clip at 149. 
 
UVU will enter Sunday with five grapplers currently nationally ranked led by LaMont checking in at sixth at 125. The two-time Big 12 champ Romero is next at No. 8 at 165, while freshman transfer Haiden Drury is 27th at 133, 2021 NCAA qualifier Smith is 32nd at 141, and sophomore transfer Hunter Cruz is 33rd at 184. Hunsaker is also a current honorable mention on the latest FloWrestling rankings.

ABOUT DOANE
Doane University is an NAIA institution located in Crete, Nebraska that calls the Great Plains Athletic Conference home (GPAC). Doane will enter the season ranked third nationally in the preseason NAIA poll and has eight grapplers in their probable lineup for Sunday's duals currently nationally ranked. Two-time defending NAIA National Champion Baagii Boldmaa from Mongolia leads the way at 141 pounds as he went a perfect 25-0 last season and is the top-ranked NAIA wrestler in his weight class. Senior 125-pounder Daniel Vargas is next as he'll enter Sunday's contest ranked third nationally. Doane also has six returning national qualifiers this season. 
 
ABOUT NORTH IDAHO
North Idaho College is a junior college from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho that is a member of the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC). The Cardinals will enter the contest ranked sixth nationally on the NJCAA Preseason Poll. Sunday's action will mark NIC's second competition of the season, as North Idaho will enter the UNC Duals with a 1-0 record after defeating Montana State Northern, 21-20, in its season opener on Oct. 29. NIC also has seven grapplers currently nationally ranked in the top-eight of their respective weight class in the preseason NJCAA national rankings. A trio of Cardinals lead the way in Brandon Bollinger (149), Weston Presser (157) and Cohle Feliciano (285) as they are all currently ranked third. NIC finished sixth at the NJCAA National Championships last season and crowned one national champ and five All-Americans.
 
ABOUT NORTHWEST KANSAS TECH
Northwest Kansas Technical College is a junior college in Goodland, Kansas that calls the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference home (KJCCC). Northwest Tech will enter the season ranked 22nd nationally on the preseason NJCAA poll. The Mavericks currently have one grappler nationally ranked in Cody Francis as he checks in at No. 6 on the preseason NJCAA rankings. NWKTC crowned a pair of national champions last season as well as a trio of NJCAA All-Americans.
 
ABOUT NORTHERN COLORADO
The Bears will enter 2021-22 off of a 4-2 dual record last season which included a 3-2 clip in Big 12 Conference contests. Northern Colorado returns four NCAA qualifiers from last year and all four will enter Sunday nationally ranked in the preseason InterMat poll. Andrew Alirez leads the way as he's currently ranked 13th at 141 pounds, while 2021 Big 12 finalist Jackson Hemauer is 17th at 174, Alan Clothier is No. 24 at 197, and Mosha Schwartz is No. 26 at 133. UNC entered the national rankings as a team for the first time in 51 years a season ago and they climbed as high as No. 17. The Bears also posted their best Big 12 Championship finish in history last year by taking seventh. UNC will enter Sunday ranked 28th on the WIN Magazine Preseason Tournament poll and 41st by FloWrestling. 
 
ALL-TIME HISTORY
Sunday's contest against Northern Colorado will mark the 22nd all-time meeting on the mat between UVU and UNC. The Bears hold a slight 12-9 series advantage after pulling out a tightly contested 19-16 dual in Orem this past January. UVU has won two of the last three meetings in Greeley, however, which includes a 22-17 victory in the last meeting in Greeley on Feb. 15, 2019.
 
UVU will also enter Sunday with a 1-0 all-time series lead over North Idaho. The lone previous meeting with the Cardinals came in UVU's first season with a wrestling program—2003-04—and the Wolverines went on to defeat NIC by a score of 23-18 thanks to a tech fall from current associate head coach Erkin Tadzhimetov. Sunday will mark the first all-time meeting between UVU and both Doane and Northwest Tech.
 
ALL-TIME IN SEASON OPENERS
UVU will enter Sunday's action with a 9-9 record in dual meet season openers. The Wolverines have won five of their last six openers, however, with wins over California Baptist, Sacred Heart, Big 12 foe West Virginia, Nebraska-Kearney, and Michigan State during the stretch. 
 
LAMONT PLACES FIFTH AT U23 GRECO WORLDS
After winning U23 Nationals this past May to earn a spot to compete at the 2021 U23 World Championships, UVU redshirt junior 125-pounder Taylor LaMont went on to post a fifth-place World finish at 55 kg. LaMont, who is a former U.S. National Team member in Greco, went 2-2 at the 2021 U23 Worlds in Greco-Roman competition en route to placing fifth. He opened his 2021 U23 World Championship run with back-to-back wins to reach the semifinals. After falling in the semis to Iran, he then wrestled for a World bronze medal but ended up dropping a 6-1 contest to Azerbaijan to finish fifth. LaMont is an unprecedented eight-time age-group World Team qualifier and a former World bronze medalist as he took bronze at the 2016 Junior World Championships.
 
ON DECK FOR UVU
Following Sunday's action, the Wolverines will head to Southern California to face CSU Bakersfield and California Baptist on Nov. 19 in Riverside. UVU will then take part in the Roadrunner Open on Nov. 21 in Bakersfield. Utah Valley's home opener will come on Monday, Dec. 20 when No. 7 Oklahoma State comes to the UCCU Center. 
 
SUNDAY'S PROBABLE LINEUPS
Utah Valley (0-0, 0-0 Big 12)
125: Yusief Lillie, Fr. (0-0) OR Will Edelblute, RSo. (0-0)
133: #27 Haiden Drury, Fr. (0-0) OR Kobe Nelms, So. (0-0)
141: #32 Ty Smith, RFr. (0-0) OR James Emmer, RFr. (0-0)
149: Sam Edelblute, RFr. (0-0) OR Alex Emmer, Fr. (0-0)
157: Brigg Hoopes, So. (0-0) OR Jaxon Garoutte, Fr. (0-0)
165: #8 Demetrius Romero, RSr. (0-0) OR Tanner Lofthouse, Fr. (0-0)
174: Hunter Morse, Fr. (0-0) OR Kekana Fouret, RFr. (0-0)
184: #33 Hunter Cruz, RSo. (0-0) OR Jacob Armstrong, RSo. (0-0)
197: Ashton Seely, RJr. (0-0) OR Evan Bockman, RSo. (0-0)
285: Jayden Woodruff, RSo. (0-0) OR Chase Trussell, RSo. (0-0)
 
Northern Colorado (0-0, 0-0 Big 12)
125: Jace Koelzer, RSo. (0-0) OR Kenny Sailas, Fr. (0-0)
133: #26 Mosha Schwartz, So. (0-0) OR Dyson Kunz, Fr. (0-0)
141: #13 Andrew Alirez, So. (0-0) OR Armando Garcia, Fr. (0-0)
149: Chris Sandoval, RJr. (0-0) OR Zeke Alirez, RSo. (0-0)
157: Nate Moore, So. (0-0) OR Cody Eaton, Fr. (0-0)
165: Nick Knutson, Gr. (0-0)
174: Damen Pape, Fr. (0-0)
184: Xavier Vasquez, RSo. (0-0) OR Branson Britten, Fr. (0-0)
197: #24 Alan Clothier, Gr. (0-0)
285: Robert Winters, Gr. (0-0)
 
#3 Doane University (0-0, 0-0 GPAC)
125: #3 Daniel Vargas, Sr. (0-0) OR Russell Nickerson, Fr. (0-0) 
133: Justin Ramirez, Fr. (0-0) OR Jeremy McKee, Fr. (0-0)
141: #1 Baagii Boldmaa, Sr. (0-0) 
149: #9 Tristan Zamilpa, Jr. (0-0)
157: #17 Chinges Tsermaa, Jr. (0-0) OR Gabriel Keith, Fr. (0-0)
165: Benji Dobler, So. (0-0)
174: #10 Michael Scarponi, Jr. (0-0)
184: Garrett Cornwell, Sr. (0-0) OR Cael Jordan, Fr. (0-0)
197: #9 Bradley Antesberger, So. (0-0) OR Zion Longsine, So. (0-0)
285: #7 Odgi Batkhishig, Sr. (0-0) OR #12 Brandon Antesberger, Jr. (0-0)
 
#6 North Idaho (1-0, 0-0 NWAC)
125: #8 Jett Strickenberger, Fr. (1-0)
133: Brant Porter, Fr. (1-0) OR Earl Blake, So. (0-0)
141: Alex Lopez, So. (0-0) 
149: Kanai Tapia, Fr. (1-0) OR Ben Mitchell, Fr. (0-0)
157: #3 Brandon Bollinger, So. (0-0) 
165: #5 Ledger Petracek, So. (0-1) 
174: #5 Navarro Nanpuya, So. (1-0) 
184: Devin Winston, So. (0-1) 
197: Mikey Rhea, So. (0-0)
285: #3 Cohle Feliciano, Jr. (1-0)
 
#22 Northwest Tech (0-0, 0-0 KJCCC)
125: Open
133: Isaac Castro, Fr. (0-0)
141: Open
149: Bryce Boumans, Fr. (0-0)
157: Hunter Gonzalez, Fr. (0-0) OR Luther Elijah McGee, So. (0-0)
165: Richie Lee, Fr. (0-0)
174: Jameel Coles, Fr. (0-0) OR Jon Carr, Fr. (0-0) 
184: Joshua Miller, Fr. (0-0)
197: Jayshon Hines, Fr. (0-0) OR Davis Lee, So. (0-0)
285: Marlin Miles, Fr. (0-0)

SUNDAY'S SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
8:00 a.m.
Mat 1 - Doane vs. North Idaho
 
9:30 a.m.                
Mat 1 - North Idaho vs. NWKTC
Mat 2 - Utah Valley vs. Doane
 
11:00 a.m.              
Mat 1 - Utah Valley vs. North Idaho
Mat 2 - UNC vs. NWKTC
 
12:30 p.m.              
Mat 1 - Doane vs. NWKTC
Mat 2 - UNC vs. North Idaho
 
2:00 p.m.                
Mat 1 - Utah Valley vs. NWKTC
Mat 2 - UNC vs. Doane
 
4:00 p.m.                
Mat 1 - UNC vs. Utah Valley