Huskers to Host Wrestle-Offs Thursday NightHuskers to Host Wrestle-Offs Thursday Night
Wrestling

Huskers to Host Wrestle-Offs Thursday Night

Lincoln, Neb. -- The Nebraska wrestling team will hold Wrestle-Offs in conjunction with the annual Fall Coaches Clinic on Thursday, Nov. 1 inside the Hendricks Training Complex. The Wrestle-Offs begin at 6 p.m. and the Huskers will be contesting 11 bouts, with the winners earning starting spots to begin the 2018-19 season.

This event is free of charge and will be held in the wrestling room upstairs at Hendricks. Along with the permanent bleacher seating in the room, additional seating will be provided for spectators.

The Wrestle-Offs provide fans with their first chance to get a glimpse of the 2018-19 Huskers, who are coming off of a fifth-place finish at the 2018 Big Ten Championships and a ninth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. NU has racked up four straight top-ten NCAA finishes.

The team returns 21 letterwinners from last season, including seven starters and five NCAA qualifiers. All-Americans Tyler Berger (157 pounds), Chad Red Jr. (141 pounds) and Taylor Venz (184 pounds) highlight a strong group of returners. The Huskers will need to replace three starters from its 2017-18 group.

Nebraska opens its season at the Warren Williamson/Daktronics Open on Sunday, Nov. 4, before beginning the dual season at home against Wisconsin on Friday, Nov. 16 at 8 p.m. This dual will be our “Pepsi Pack the House Night,” with tickets going for $1. Tickets to the Wisconsin dual, as well as each of the other six duals, are on sale now and can be purchased at Huskers.com/tickets or by calling 1-800-8-BIG-RED.

Head Coach Mark Manning, who is entering his 19th season at the helm of the Nebraska Wrestling Team, will be available for interviews upon request starting at 4 p.m. the day of the wrestle-offs. Contact E.J. Stevens with requests to interview Coach Manning or any of the wrestlers.


Nebraska to Face Strong Dual Schedule

Nebraska posted a 10-4 dual record in 2017-18, its eighth consecutive winning season and 29th winning season in the last 31 years. This winter, the Huskers will look to continue that streak and build off a ninth-place finish at the 2018 NCAA Championships.

NU will face a challenging schedule that features 13 of the top-25 team finishers from last year’s NCAA Championships. The home schedule is highlighted by matchups against top-25 finishers Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Northern Iowa and Illinois. Stanford will also travel to the Devaney Center for the regular-season finale on Feb. 23. The Cardinal finished tied for 34th at the NCAA Championships.

Nebraska faces a grueling road schedule this season with notable trips to 2018 national champion Penn State and national runner-up Ohio State. Early in the season, NU takes a road trip to North Carolina and NC State. The Tar Heels, who the Huskers face on Dec. 15, finished 20th at last year’s NCAA Championships. The next night, the Huskers travel to Raleigh, N.C., for a dual against NC State, which finished fourth at the 2018 NCAA Championships. Other road duals for NU include matchups against Wyoming, Maryland and Rutgers.

As for tournament action, NU opens the season with the Warren Williamson/Daktronics Open on Nov. 4. On Saturday, Nov. 10, the Huskers head to Albany, N.Y., for the Northeast Duals. They will also travel to the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Collegiate Wrestling Invitational Nov. 30-Dec. 1 for the second straight year.  The Big Ten Championships will take place March 9-10 in Minneapolis, Minn., where the Huskers will look to improve on three straight fourth-place finishes. The NCAA Championships are set for March 21-23 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pa., as NU will look to make it five consecutive top-10 national finishes.

Berger Looks to Earn Third All-America Award

A 157-pound senior from Prineville, Ore., Tyler Berger returns looking to become the 17th Husker to achieve All-America status in three separate years. He finished third after earning 15.5 points at the NCAA Championships last season, continuing a string of success at that weight in recent years. The Huskers have had an All-American at 157 in six of the past eight seasons.

Berger was second on the team last year with 28 wins, giving him a career record of 88-28. His performance on the mat in 2017-18 puts him just 12 wins away from joining Nebraska’s 100-win club. He would be the 28th all-time member of the 100-win club and first since Tim Lambert joined in 2016-17. Of Berger’s nine losses last season, six of them came against Hayden Hidlay of N.C. State, Andrew Crone of Wisconsin or Alec Pantaleo of Michigan. Berger fell to each of these opponents twice. A three-time NCAA Championships qualifier, he finished fourth at the Big Ten Championships last season.

Veteran Bunch Returns to Lead NU

Nebraska will be guided by a strong group of veteran returners in 2018-19. NU loses just two senior starters as they get set for this year’s campaign. Mitchell Maginnis (125) went 16-16 in 2017-18 while Colton McCrystal (149) was a two-time NCAA Championships qualifier and won 23 matches last year. Maginnis and McCrystal were the two most decorated Huskers to expire their eligibility while Justin Arthur (157) and Eric Engler (174) added quality depth.

Seven Huskers qualified for the NCAA Championships in 2017-18 and five were seeded in the top 20 of their weight class. Five of these wrestlers return this season. At 141 pounds, redshirt sophomore Chad Red Jr. returns after finishing seventh at the NCAA Championships, while Isaiah White (165) lost in the Round of 12 after coming in as the No. 11 seed.

White will be a junior this fall. Taylor Venz and Eric Schultz, now redshirt sophomores for NU, each participated at the NCAA Championships at 184 and 197 pounds, respectively. Venz took home a fourth-place finish while Schultz did not place. Berger is the fifth returning NCAA qualifier while Jason Renteria, a freshman in 2017-18 who qualified for the championships at 133 pounds, transferred away from the program.

NU Goes for Five Straight Top-10 finishes

Nebraska’s seven-member senior class of Tyler Berger, Tanner Farmer, Zak Hensley, Zeke Moisey, Brian Peska, Aris Shino and Dustin Williams enter the 2018-19 season looking to ensure that Nebraska’s streak of four consecutive top-10 NCAA finishes continues this season. Peska and Shino are two of the top competitors projected to take over the starting job at 133 pounds, while Zak Hensley posted an 11-4 record at 141 pounds last season. Tyler Berger looks to etch his name in the Husker history books as a senior. His career-best win total in a season is 36 in 2016-17 and he sits 40 wins behind Jordan Burroughs, who ranks in fourth place on the NU all-time wins list.

Zeke Moisey, a senior from Northhampton, Pa., has one year of eligibility remaining after spending the first four years of his collegiate wrestling career at West Virginia. Moisey qualified for the NCAA Championships three times at WVU. He was the national runner-up at 125 pounds in 2015 and finished eighth in 2018 on his way to All-America honors in both years. He looks to be the heir apparent to Mitchell Maginnis as the 125-pound starter.

Dual Experience A Plus for NU

Nebraska returns 13 wrestlers with dual experience this season, including All-Americans Tyler Berger, Chad Red Jr. and Taylor Venz. Along with the three aforementioned wrestlers, redshirt sophomore Eric Schultz and junior Isaiah White return as NCAA qualifiers who gained significant dual experience last season. They combined to go 21-6 in duals. Berger, Red Jr. and Venz also won at least nine duals in 2017-18.

Brian Peska (133), Zak Hensley (141), Collin Purinton (149), Johnny Blankenship (165), Patrick Grayson (HWT) and David Jensen (HWT) all gained dual experience last season. As a team, NU won 10 of its 14 duals overall and seven of its nine Big Ten duals.

Redshirt Year Pays Dividends for Freshmen

In the past, Nebraska’s redshirt freshmen have played a big role in the team’s success. Last year, Chad Red Jr. (141), Beau Breske (174), Taylor Venz (184) and Eric Schultz (197) made the leap from redshirt seasons to significant roles in NU’s dual lineup. Each was heavily depended upon in their weight class a year ago.

Top candidates to break into the lineup during their redshirt freshmen seasons are Christian Miller (133) and Mikey Labriola (174). A native of Easton, Pa., Labriola posted an 18-2 record in his redshirt year with four pins, three technical falls and five major decisions. FloWrestling ranked him as the No. 11 wrestler in the country at 174 pounds in the preseason. Plainview native Christian Miller went 11-6 during his redshirt year and appears set to challenge for the starting job at 133 pounds.

Nebraska Welcomes Strong Crop of Newcomers

Nebraska’s incoming class of newcomers features 10 wrestlers, including two transfers and eight true freshmen. Highlighting the class is West Virginia transfer Zeke Moisey, who has one year of eligibility remaining to compete for the Huskers. He’s a two-time All-American who finished eighth in the 125 pound bracket at the 2018 NCAA Championships. Christian Lance, a 2017 Division II NCAA Championships qualifier at Fort Hays State, will look to break into the lineup at the heavyweight spot.

Roster notes

  • Nebraska features a 35-wrestler roster as it begins official practice.
  • Two-thirds of the Huskers’ 2018-19 roster are underclassmen, as 23 of Nebraska’s 35 wrestlers are either freshmen or sophomores.
  • Included in Nebraska’s roster are also six seniors and six juniors.
  • Fourteen Huskers on this season’s roster are returning letterwinners.
  • This year’s Huskers come from 16 states, and seven are Nebraska natives.