Don’t say NIU wrestling coach Dave Grant never liked a challenge.

With the season’s first tournament only one day away, the NIU wrestling team will kick off one of the toughest schedules in the program’s history.

Despite attaining a top-25 national ranking for much of last season and finishing with a 13-4 record, NIU will not be resting on its laurels as the season kicks off.

By facing three top-15 opponents in the first three dual meets, Grant arranged the schedule to have his team tested early in the season. His theory is to be the best, his team has to wrestle the best.

“This team trains hard,” Grant said. “It would do a team a disservice not to wrestle [the] best teams in [the] country. A team needs challenges to improve. The worse thing you can do to a team is put them in a non-challenging situation. They get complacent.”

Starting Dec. 1, the Huskies will meet three straight Big Ten foes in Northwestern, Wisconsin and Indiana. Along with MAC foe Central Michigan, the Huskies will face at least four top-25 teams this season. Coupled with a first-ever invite to this year’s prestigious National Duals, Chad Vandiver thinks the early challenge will be good preparation for the rest of the season.

“If you’re just beating someone all the time, you can’t improve,” the 133-pound sophomore said. “Starting off with quality teams lets us know where we’re at and what we need to work on. It makes everyone step it up a little bit and keeps intensity high. Every week it’s someone new and [someone] good.”

The Huskies open their season at Stevens Point, Wis., in the Pointer Open Saturday. Last year at Stevens Point, NIU placed 12 wrestlers in the top four of their weight classes and won three weight classes. With the all-day tournament, Vandiver said a different mind-set and pacing is necessary compared to a dual meet.

“With a dual, you know who you will wrestle,” Vandiver said. “You might know what type of wrestler he is. But at a tournament, it’s more like surviving and getting through to the next match. You have to adapt to different styles.”

Since opens stress the individual over the team, Grant thinks the early tournaments are the best way for his wrestlers to advance in their weight-class rankings.

“The easiest way to get ranked is to win tournaments,” Grant said. “Tournaments have five guys, and it’s much faster to get ranked. The people who do rankings can basically just look at who’s winning those.”

The Huskies return nine starters from last year’s squad, including three national qualifiers in senior Josh Wooton and juniors Mike Grimes and Johnny Galloway.

Coming into last season, Grimes in particular was an unknown commodity. The former walk-on won the starting spot at 149 pounds and went on to win 22 matches last season, including two wins at the NCAA championships. Ranked as high as No. 9 by the National Wrestling Coaches Association in his weight class, Grimes realizes that expectations have risen for the team and himself.

“People know we’re up and coming and we get some respect,” Grimes said. “They’re giving us a chance. My goal is to win a national championship. It’s not unrealistic. You have to have the highest expectations possible. Why not stretch those goals?”