Things never seem to get easier for the NIU wrestling team. After facing the first- and third-best teams in the country, the Huskies open up their home schedule today at 7 p.m. against No. 5 Northwestern at Victor E. Court in the annual Showcase Meet.

“We should have a sellout and my advice is to get there early because you might not get in,” head coach Dave Grant said. “We’ve been in some really great environments with Iowa State and Minnesota, so our guys are used to the intensity and pressure of performing when a lot of people are watching.”

Senior and 10th-ranked Pat Castillo has lost three matches this year by a combined three points to wrestlers ranked in the top five. Tonight, he gets a minor break by hosting 20th ranked Eric Metzler.

“He basically had the No. 2 guy in the country beat,” Grant said, referring to Castillo’s 4-3 loss last weekend.

The Huskies’ other ranked grappler, Duke Burk, gets a chance to improve on his No. 13 ranking as he faces the Wildcats’ eighth-ranked Nick Hayes. Burk boasts an impressive 7-1 record thus far with his only loss coming by one point to the sixth-ranked wrestler in the 174-pound class.

Last week, senior Dave Benner ended Minnesota’s two-year unbeaten streak at the heavyweight class. Benner looks to build off that confidence when he faces top-ranked Dustin Fox.

“We’ve been watching film on him and he can be beaten,” Benner said. “He came in this year overweight so he had to lose some weight. This should be a really good meet to see where we are going to be this year.”

Earlier this season, Pat McLemore, one of five freshman on this season’s lineup, earned his first ever tournament championship at the Cyclone Open. Tonight, the Ohio native looks to pull off an upset against Northwestern’s No. 1 ranked Ryan Long in the 141-pound match.

“It’s been about 10 years since I’ve had this many freshman,” Grant said. “It’s fun for me to coach them because they are so excited about wrestling and it brings a lot of excitement to the program.”

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