Wolverine Wrestling to Host UVU Open Saturday

OREM, Utah – Fresh off of the holiday break, the Utah Valley University wrestling team will return to the mat this weekend to host the ninth annual UVU Open on Saturday, Jan. 9 in the PE Building. The open tournament will begin at 9 a.m. and will feature competitors from over 20 different schools and clubs around the West.

Saturday's action will take place on four mats in the PE Building and live results can be followed throughout the duration of the tournament by visiting TrackWrestling.com.

Alongside 16 grapplers from Utah Valley, wrestlers from Boise State, CSU Bakersfield, Grand Canyon, Wyoming, Clackamas, Colorado Mesa, Embry-Riddle, Gateway Bible Institute, Glendale, Montana-Western, Northwest Wyoming, Western State Colorado and Western Wyoming are all scheduled to take part at Saturday's event.

Of the 16 Wolverines set to participate at Saturday's Open, 10 are scheduled to compete for UVU, while six more are slated to wrestle unattached. The 10 competitors that are set to wrestle for Utah Valley will be redshirt freshman Tyler Scott (125 pounds), senior Jade Rauser (133), juniors Trevor Willson (141) and Bracken Nipko (141), sophomores Matthew Ontiveros (149) and Brayden Humpherys (149), freshmen Kieffer Taylor (165) and Will Sumner (184), and sophomores Aryton Almberg (197) and Jordan Karst(285), while Chase Call (141), Grant LaMont (149), Dalton Harmon (165), Johnny O'hearon (165), Jake Armstrong (184) and Tanner Orndorff (197) will all compete unattached.

Utah Valley crowned four champions at last year's UVU Open, as Jarod Maynes won the 133-pound title, Willson earned the 149-pound one, Sumner took home the 184-pound one and Dustin Dennison picked up the heavyweight crown. Of the group, Willson and Sumner will be looking to defend their titles and take home their second straight respective UVU Open championships on Saturday.

The Wolverines will enter Saturday's action off of a 15th-place finish at the Reno Tournament of Champions on Dec. 20 in Reno, Nevada. Eighteenth-ranked senior Chasen Tolbert (125) led UVU by placing sixth in his weight class, while Maynes too had a strong showing by finishing 3-2 and Dennison and Karst were right behind him with respective 2-2 records.

Up Next for UVU

Following Saturday's open tournament, Utah Valley will return to dual action the following week when it heads to California to take on Stanford and CSU Bakersfield. The Wolverines will first face Stanford in Palo Alto on Friday, Jan. 15 prior to traveling to Bakersfield to compete against CSUB the following night (Jan. 16). UVU will then return home to welcome Arizona State to town for a Pac-12 vs. Big 12 showdown on Thursday, Jan. 21.