NIU Wrestling 2015-16 Schedule 

DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University wrestling team unveiled an exciting 2015-16 schedule, head coach Ryan Ludwig announced on Monday.

The Huskies will host five home duals during the season, including marquee matchups against Illinois (Jan. 10) and Missouri (Feb. 7), who both finished in the top 15 at last year’s NCAA Championships. NIU’s three other home events will feature showdowns with Mid-American Conference foes Central Michigan (Dec. 3), Northern Iowa (Jan. 8) and Kent State (Feb. 5) as the Huskies aim to defend their home mat in DeKalb in the conference this season.

NIU wrestling head coach Ryan Ludwig said the Huskies’ home schedule is one of the toughest in program history, which is something that has motivated the team even more to improve throughout summer training.

“This is as challenging a schedule as we’ve ever put together, and we couldn’t be more excited about it," Ludwig said. "It offers our individuals the road map to reach the heights of success within the MAC and NCAA come March. The team is training with this purpose in mind every day.”

Ludwig’s squad will host the annual Red/Black Dual on Friday, October 30 at 7 p.m. at Victor E. Court before beginning the regular season slate the next weekend at the EMU Duals and Open in Ypsilanti, Mich. There the Huskies will compete in a quality set of duals against Purdue of the Big 10 and Edinboro, Bloomsburg and Clarion of the Eastern Wrestling League.

NIU wrestling will then head to open tournaments at Michigan State and Lindenwood the following two weekends on Nov. 15 and Nov. 21, respectively.

The MAC matches begin on Dec. 3 when the Huskies welcome the Chippewas to DeKalb for a dual at 7 p.m. before the team spends the rest of the month with a road trip to Grand Canyon (Dec. 19) and a local tournament at the prestigious Midlands Championships at Northwestern on Dec. 29-30.

The month of January features six duals for the NIU wrestling team. A weekend of exciting home matchups with Northern Iowa and Illinois will be followed by a trip downstate as the Huskies wrestle SIUE in Springfield on Jan. 16 and challenge The Citadel in Edwardsville the following day. NIU completes the month with two key MAC road trips to Ohio (Jan. 22) and Eastern Michigan (Jan. 30).

The first week of February features home dates with Kent State and Missouri in DeKalb, which is followed by MAC away duals against Buffalo (Feb. 14) and Old Dominion (Feb. 19) as the Huskies wrap up their regular season.

Completing the NIU 2015-16 wrestling schedule will be the traditional MAC and NCAA Championships. The league championships will be held at Eastern Michigan this year on March 5-6 in Ypsilanti, Mich., while the NCAA Championships head to the Big Apple for the first time as Madison Square Garden hosts college wrestling’s best from March 17-19 in New York City.

The NIU wrestling team returns seven key members who won at least five dual matches in 2014-15, including 2014 NCAA Championships qualifier at 197 pounds Shawn Scott (Holly, Mich./Holly), who extended NIU wrestling's streak of sending at least one wrestler to nationals to 44 consecutive years last March.

The Huskies could also add five wrestlers who picked up double-digit open tournament victories while redshirting last season to their dual lineup, as well as members of this year’s NIU wrestling recruiting class that has been ranked in the top 25 by some media outlets.

--NIU--