Wrestling Northern Colorado opens the 100 season with a game against nationally ranked Missouri

The Northern Colorado wrestling team will celebrate the start of the program’s 100th anniversary season this weekend with a match against Big 12 Conference opponent Missouri.

The Bears, who are coming off their best season in a decade, start the year ranked No. 20 in a preseason poll coming into the dual meet with the No. 1 Tigers. 6, Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Bank of Colorado Arena.

While the conference matchup with the Tigers is the highlight of the weekend, and Bears coach Troy Nickerson hopes fans choose to “fill the bench” and pack the stands of the 3,000-seat arena, there are other events taking place around Saturday the program.

The day begins with a youth clinic hosted by USA Wrestling from 4:30-5:30pm in the University Recreation Center on campus. The clinic will be led by USA wrestling coach J’den Cox, a three-time NCAA champion at Missouri and international athlete who won an Olympic bronze medal for the USA in 2016. UNC wrestlers not scheduled to compete in the Missouri match will they also participate. the clinic.

Nickerson said the clinic is open to wrestlers in kindergarten through 12th grade and expects about 500 young wrestlers to attend.

The Tigers game will also serve as alumni night, with about 100 former Bears wrestlers returning to celebrate the program’s milestone year, Nickerson said. Among those former athletes expected to return is 1958 graduate Bob Smith, a well-known and accomplished Colorado wrestling figure who developed a successful program at Wray High School after graduating from UNC – then known as Colorado State College .

In 33 years at Wray, Smith’s wrestling team won 10 state tournaments, with seven second-place finishes and three third-place finishes, according to the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. Smith coached 39 individual state wrestling champions – including five at the 1969 tournament.

UNC’s struggles began in 1924, when the named school was Colorado State Teachers College. The name University of Northern Colorado was adopted in 1970.

The Bears’ nickname is also nearly 100 years old, according to the UNC website. Athletic teams were known as the Professors until 1925.

The wrestling team will honor the past by wearing purple jerseys with the name Greeley State on the front during the game against Missouri. Greeley State was never an official school name.

The institution was first called the Greeley State Normal School when it was established in 1889. Normal schools were created to train teachers.

The school was then known as Colorado State Teachers College from 1911-35. The name Colorado State College of Education in Greeley held until the late 1950s. The school became Colorado State College in 1957.

Greeley native Andrew Alirez returns to the Bears lineup this season after taking a redshirt year in 2023-24 to try to make the U.S. Olympic team. Ranked No. 1 in the preseason at 141 pounds, Alirez is one of the top collegiate wrestlers in the U.S. and the favorite to win another NCAA title. He was NCAA champion at 141 in 2023finishing the 2022-23 season with a 28-0 record.

Alirez has been an unabashed hometown supporter since he was in high school, winning four state titles at Greeley Central. Nickerson said the use of the name Greeley State is used loosely and plays into Alirez’s frequent mentions of Greeley and the northern Colorado area.

“It’s throwback, retro and unique,” Nickerson said.

The school colors used to be purple and gold. The change to navy blue and gold was made official in 1976. According to UNC’s website, a well-known campus myth about the color change says that former football coach Bob Blasi purchased navy jerseys after the purple jerseys faded from washing .

Blasi coached at UNC from 1966-84. He died in September 2023 at 93 years old.

UNC’s website said Blasi’s purchase then caused a domino effect in the athletic department until all coaches and programs wore navy and gold.

Nickerson, entering his 11th season, said this year could be the program’s best in his tenure. He would like to start the season with a personal goal – to sell out the Bank of Colorado Arena.

“We’ve been trying to make it happen,” Nickerson said, adding that planning for the evening has been going on for six months. “I wanted to bring a big team out of the gate to get people excited.”

In addition to Alirez, Nickerson said, three other wrestlers “should” qualify for the NCAA Tournament this spring: Stevo Poulin at 125, Dominick Serrano at 133 and Vinny Zerban at 157. All three athletes qualified for the national tournament from last year.

Poulin, a redshirt junior from Upstate New York, had her best finish at NCAAs with a top-12 finish and one win away from All-American status with a top-8 finish.

Poulin is ranked 12th at 125 as of earlier this month, according to FloWrestling. Serrano, a former state champion for Windsor High, is ranked 21st at 133 and Zerban is ranked 16th at 157.