Dec. 28, 2011

OREM, Utah - Utah Valley University will send a full squad of 10 wrestlers for the first time to compete at the prestigious 49th annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships on Thursday and Friday at Welsh-Ryan Arena on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. More than 40 Division I, II and III teams are scheduled to compete in the annual tournament.

It will be the third time overall that UVU will have grapplers in competition at the tournament dubbed, "Where the Elite Meet to Compete," but the first in which the Wolverines have had the 10-man maximum invited. It will also be the first time that Utah Valley has competed at the tournament since the 2009-10 season.

Two years ago, former-UVU great Benjamin Kjar led the Wolverines by placing fifth at 125 pounds. Kjar entered the tournament as the sixth-seed and wrestled his way to a 5-2 record to earn his fifth-place finish.

This season Utah Valley junior 149-pounder Josh Wilson, who is currently ranked No. 13 by InterMat, will look to lead the Wolverines, as he will enter the tournament seeded eighth in his weight division.

Wilson is currently 6-4 on the season but all four of his prior losses have come to ranked opponents. In his last competition at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, he knocked off three ranked foes to place fifth at the coveted invitational.

The 49th edition of Midlands continues to bring in some of the best collegiate wrestling competition in the country with 13 ranked Division I teams and many more ranked individuals. Additionally, seven teams that placed in the top 10 at the 2010 Midlands Championships return this year.

The complete list of Division I programs competing at Midlands is as follows: No. 1 Iowa, No. 7 Illinois, No. 9 Oklahoma, No. 12 Lehigh, No. 13 Maryland, No. 15 Virginia Tech, No. 17 Rutgers, No. 18 Northwestern, No. 19 Central Michigan, No. 24 Edinboro, Cal Poly (RV), Penn (RV), Purdue (RV), American, Bucknell, CSU Bakersfield, Clarion, Eastern Michigan, Harvard, Iowa State, North Dakota State, Northern Illinois, Northern Iowa, Princeton, Rider, Stanford, South Dakota State and Utah Valley (Rankings taken from the latest USA Today/NWCA Coaches Poll).

The opening session of the tournament will begin at 9:30 a.m. CT/8:30 a.m. MT Thursday morning. Thursday's evening session will then take place at 6 p.m. MT. Friday's action will then begin at 11 a.m. MT with the semifinals, consolation rounds and seventh-place matches. Friday's final session will then take place at 6 p.m. MT and the first, third and fifth-place bouts will then be showcased on three mats.

Northwestern will provide a webstream from Thursday night's quarterfinals that can be accessed by Clicking Here and the Big Ten Network will broadcast Friday's finals on tape delay at 8:30 p.m. MT. To go to Northwestern's tournament central website Click Here.

Following the Midlands Championships, the Wolverines will come home for the first time of the season when they host the annual UVU Open on Saturday, Jan. 7. Utah Valley will then welcome Boise State to town on Jan. 12, for its first home dual of the season.