After last weekend’s season-opening tournament, NIU wrestling coach Ed Vatch said his team was out of shape. This week he did something to remedy that problem.

He intensified practice workouts.

“I upped the intensity of the workouts to find out how good they (wrestlers) really are,” Vatch said. “We worked more conditioning things like running and short drills.”

Vatch wants his team to be ready for the competition his squad will face this Friday and Saturday (Nov. 18-19) at the St. Louis Open, to be hosted by Forest Park Junior College.

“There will be more club teams, because it is an open tournament,” Vatch said. “Plus, teams like Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Wisconsin and Missouri will be there. I would say that four or five of the top 12 schools in the country will be there.”

Some of the wrestlers did not argue with Vatch about the increased workout at practices.

“Yeah, he did make it tougher,” wrestler Ray Espinosa said. “This week he watched us run instead of leaving it to us. We ran sprints, up and down the bleachers, and laps. Wrestling-wise it was tougher, too. We didn’t get any breaks.”

Vatch said a lot of thought was put into improvement. “We made an analysis of where we were at and proceded from there. We also changed the guys’ diets for the weekend. Last week, that may have attributed to our being out of shape,” Vatch said.

“I know I’m in better shape,” Espinosa said. “I’m back down to my original weight (134 pounds), but we get six pounds at this tournament.

“Everyone has been pushing each other in practice,” Espinosa said. “We’re definitely ready. We’ll do a lot better than last week.”

“I’m sure we’ll see results this weekend,” Vatch said. “The effort was there this week. If it holds true, we can make big strides. If we have the same heart and desire, we’ll do great.”