It will be an exciting time Sunday (Jan. 4) when the New Mexico Highlands grapplers begin their second season, the dual portion of its schedule, against Wayland Baptist in the annual "Northwestern Mutual Border War Dual" at La Cueva HS in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at 1 p.m.
"Dual meets, you never know what you have until you get into that season," head coach
Doug Moses opined. "In tournaments, everyone is wrestling and getting matches. Dual meets are a funny thing because you do not know what you are going to get with ultimately unexpected wins, losses and closer matches than was expected.
"You just got to get in there and compete because you have 10 guys from top to bottom in individual matches that hopefully add up to a win," Moses added.
With all bids to the NCAA Division II Wrestling Tournament coming from top-4 finishers at the NCAA Regional, the open tournaments were a good opportunity for more grapplers than the starters to compete and get experience.
"The open tournaments gives our guys a good opportunity to compete and get experience." Moses said. "That is why we do that before Christmas: We take all of our guys that are eligible this year who redshirted last year and put them in the open tournaments and allow them to gain experience to see where we are at. It is a good opportunity to get out of the practice room and wrestle someone other than ourselves.
"The opens have given us a good indication that we can be competitive," Moses added.
Finally, the majority of the teams' starters are back from last year's squad. However, the Cowboys will have big shoes to fill at 197 as Highlands lost former NCAA qualifier
Justin Rockhill due to injury.
"We have quite a few starters back from last season. Luis (Terrazas) has done a great job at 197 and has placed in several of the tournaments. We have a lot of our starters back from last season so we do not have many changes, but Luis has been solid for us after we lost a key starter from last season," Moses explained.
Here is a quick look at every weight class:
At 125, there will be a trio of wrestlers who will battle it out for starting position in freshman
Victor Munoz, redshirt freshman
Trevor Perez and redshirt sophomore
Jacob Espana. Only Munoz has experience from last season, going 2-6.
At 133, redshirt junior
Tre Humphrey and freshman
Jack Gaylor will be contending for that spot. Humphrey went 5-13 last season with four of his five wins coming on pins.
Redshirt junior
Dan Gaylor, who has been with the Cowboys the past couple of seasons, will start at 141. Gaylor finished 11-13 in 2013-14.
Highlands has had some early season success with the two contending starters at 149. Redshirt freshman
Reis Humphrey claimed a second-place finish at the OCU Open while taking fourth at the Cowboy Open (University of Wyoming) so far this season while redshirt sophomore
Orlando Guerra took sixth at the Nebraska-Kearney Open in the Freshman-Sophomore bracket.
To add more intrigue, Guerra beat Humphrey 6-5 in the pigtails of the 149 bracket at Nebraska-Kearney.
At 157, the Cowboys have redshirt sophomore
Jesse Martinez back from last season battling with freshman
Kellen Pelzel. Martinez went 11-12 last season and took sixth in the 157 Freshman/Sophomore bracket at the Nebraska-Kearney Open.
Redshirt junior
Juan Alvarado, who went 20-10 last season, has been a starter for us the past two seasons for the Cowboys at 165.
One of the few weight classes that will see a change is 174, where junior
JB Bechtloff has wrestled at all three open open tournaments.
However, the three heavy weights have a lot of places under their belt so far this season, begining with the lone Highlands senior at the 184-pound weight class. Three-year starter
Easton Hargrave, who is a two-time Greco-Roman All-American, was 15-13 last season.
As mentioned before, Highlands needed to replace a former NCAA qualifier at 197 pounds. Enter redshirt sophomore
Luis Terrazas, who placed at two of the open tournaments. He took third at the Nebraska-Kearney Open and fourth at the OCU Open in the 197 Freshman/Sophomore bracket.
Last, but certainly not least, the returning starter at heavyweight is redshirt sophomore
Cody Marquez. Going 14-12 last season, he participated in the final two open tournaments of the 2014 portion of the schedule. All he did was with the Freshman/Sophomore bracket at the Cowboy Open and finished third in the same bracket at the Nebraska-Kearney Open.
"When things are all said and done, I think we will be a competitive team from top to bottom," Moses stated.
After the dual with Wayland Baptist, the grapplers travel to Washington to take part in the Gut Check Duals. The home opener will be against Adams State on Jan. 29 at 7 p.m.
