Noah Passoni pre-match handshake vs. Millikin

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Wrestling Readies for North Central Invitational

Men’s tournament on Saturday, women on Sunday

12/12/2024 12:00:00 PM

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – For the second time in just over a week, the Illinois Wesleyan University men's wrestling team is headed to Naperville, Ill., this time for the North Central College Invitational Saturday, Dec. 14. The IWU women are also set to compete in the women's portion of the tournament Sunday, Dec. 15. Start times for both days are slated for 9 a.m. inside the Residence Hall/Recreation Center on North Central's campus.

The men's squad was recently in the suburbs for a College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin dual against North Central Tuesday, Dec. 3, where the then-sixth-ranked Cardinals claimed the dual victory to move ahead 3-0 in conference action while IWU slipped to 0-2.

IWU's women's team will return to the mats for the first time since Nov. 23, when freshmen Sifa Feruzi (Denver, Colo.-Macomb Senior) and Jurdan Tyler (Champaign, Ill.-Urbana) competed at the 8-Woman Battles in Eau Claire, Wis. Both Titans notched their first collegiate wins in the tournament.

Saturday will mark the fifth and final meet before the new year for the men and the third for the women.

Saturday's men's tournament will feature 19 teams, seven of which are nationally ranked according to The Open Mat's latest tournament rankings poll. In addition to 12th-ranked host North Central, No. 4 Augsburg, No. 6 Baldwin Wallace, No. 7 Castleton, No. 16 UW-Whitewater, No. 18 Wabash, and No. 20 Coe will all be in attendance.

On the women's side, second-ranked North Central will host 30 teams on Sunday. Top-ranked Iowa, No. 2 NCC, third-ranked King, No. 4 McKendree, and No. 5 Grand Valley State are all expected to compete along with eight additional top-25 nationally ranked programs in tournament action.

Competition on both Saturday and Sunday is set for a 9 a.m. start at North Central's Residence Hall/Recreation Center. North Central will have a pay-per-view live stream of the tournament on FloWrestling, the link to the stream can be found here. Final results of the tournament will be posted on the men's and women's wrestling schedule pages upon the conclusion of each day.

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