After a week away from the mat over the Thanksgiving holiday, NIU wrestling returns to competition when it participates in the Kaufman-Brand Open in St. Louis on Saturday. The event is hosted by Maryville .

Saturday’s action will be the Huskies first open tournament since the season-opening Eastern Michigan Open. Coach Ryan Ludwig explains how an open tournament is different then the team dual meets that the Huskies have been participating in so far this season.

“Well, open meets are nice because you get the opportunity to take everyone on your team, you know, regardless of whether or not they’re a guy in a starting role or a guy looking for a starting spot,” Ludwig said. “They’re wrestled as all 10 weight classes in tournament format. Each tournament will be placed out to a champion and all the way to sixth place.”

NIU is coming off two successful weekends of dual meet action where they compiled a record of (5-1). Most recently, the Huskies won two out of three dual meets when they defeated Calumet College of St. Joseph 57-0, Loras 41-0 and the Boilermakers of Purdue 37-0 in a home match two weeks ago.

Junior Dan Burk said it’ll be nice to get back on the mat and finally be able to get the loss against Purdue off their minds, even if this weekend’s action will not be a team event so no team score will be kept.

“Well you know, we weren’t happy with how that meet ended up,” Burke said. “And I know for me, I’m just excited for this week’s meet and to do my thing and make my moves. We’re all looking forward to leaving it all on the mat.”

Ludwig said in order for his wrestlers to be successful this weekend they will have to have success in a few certain areas.

“Well, we had the chance to heal up a little bit during Thanksgiving break, so that was nice,” Ludwig said. “We had a couple guys banged up so we had the opportunity to train a bit and get back to our wrestling. I think what we need to do at this point to take the step to the next level is to continue to wrestle with intensity and flow.”