The Huskie grapplers will host their home dual-meet season in the Northern Illinois Duals Saturday at Chick Evans Field House at 10 a.m.

The Huskies kick off the duals by going head-to-head with Illinois State at 10 a.m. At noon NIU will take on Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The Huskies will close the day at 2 p.m. against Northern Michigan.

Huskie Coach Ed Vatch said he is optimistic about this weekend’s duals competition because his team had an intense week of practice.

“We picked out one guy on the squad and we evaluated that wrestler’s weaknesses,” Vatch said. “The whole team worked on that specific wrestler’s weaknesses, and learned as a team how to do it correctly.

“We did a lot of live wrestling this week and we did a lot of conditioning. The kids are going to look tough this weekend.”

A couple of Huskies who looked strong this week in practice according to Vatch were 177-pounder Anton Kossakowski and heavyweight Mark Kuehl.

“Anton looked real intense and Mark looked exceptionally tough,” Vatch said.

Vatch said he is happy to see two of his top wrestlers back in action who had been injured recently. Joe Madonia at 167 pounds and Tom Hoy at 190 pounds are back in the lineup with healed shoulders.

“Joe went 100 percent this week and so did Tom,” Vatch said. “They both went live this week and they both looked sharp.”

Freshman Steve Kurkjian at 118 pounds said he was pleased with this past week’s workout. He had an impressive showing at last weekend’s Illini Open, taking fourth place in the freshman bracket.

“We had some tough, intense practices this week,” Kurkjian said. “We concentrated on certain guys’ mistakes this week and we learned a lot as a team.”

“We’re going to be tough on Saturday, we’re getting healthier, more physical, and our intensity level has been great,” Vatch said.

NIU will see some action over semester break at the 25th Annual Midlands Championship Dec. 29 and 30. On Jan. 3 the Huskies travel to Minnesota and on Jan. 8 they will be at Illinois State for the Redbird Duals.