Nov. 7, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern gets underway with the 2008-09 season at the Michigan State Open Sunday in East Lansing, Mich. Senior and second-ranked Jake Herbert, Northwestern's 2007 national champion at 184 lbs., makes his return to collegiate wrestling after a year spent training for the Beijing Olympics, while All-American and preseason No. 3 Brandon Precin also hits the mats for NU.
Herbert enters his final season with a career record 115-4 for a winning percentage of .966, which is tops all-time at Northwestern. His 115 wins also rank fifth in program history and his 36 victories in 2005-06 were the ninth-most in a single season at NU.
A year ago, Precin captured the 125-pound weight class title at the Michigan State Open while junior Dominic Marella placed second in the 165-pound open division.
Redshirt sophomore Keith Sulzer, an NCAA qualifier from a year ago, returns for his second season as a starter, as does classmate Andrew Nadhir.
Northwestern head coach Tim Cysewski begins his 18th season at the helm of Wildcat wrestling with aspirations of continuing the program's recent renaissance. NU has had two individual national champions in two years and has qualified at least six wrestlers for the NCAA championships in each of the past three seasons.
“We as coaches have already noticed the team improving its level of competition since we started practice this year,” Cysewski said. “We're trying to preach to guys to just put together good workouts day after day. I've always believed it's the little things that people don't see you do that make you better and I think they've bought into that.”
More than 500 wrestlers from close to 40 schools are slated to compete at the Open in Jenison Field House on Sunday. Complete tournament information is available at msuwrestling.com.