Out to prove a point, the NIU wrestling team is looking to take down one of the giants of the MAC: Ohio.

In the preseason MAC coaches poll, Ohio (6-2 overall, 1-0 MAC) was voted to take second, while the Huskies (7-3, 1-0) were picked to finish third in the conference.

The two conference foes will duel at 2 p.m. Sunday in Ohio.

“We’re two teams that are rivals,” 174-pound George Kirgan said. “We’re not going to go in there as slouches, we’re going to give it all we got. They have a lot of ranked kids in conference so we need to come to wrestle.”

One of the Bobcats’ ranked wrestlers is 157-pound Jake Percival, the No. 2-ranked wrestler in the country and tops in the MAC.

The Huskies have a No. 2 ranked wrestler on their roster as well, with 184-pound Ben Heizer.

Percival is the only wrestler on Ohio who is ranked in the top 20 by wrestlingmall.com.

The Huskies have two others ranked – 133-pound Sam Hiatt, who is No. 10 and 149-pound Josh Wooton, who comes in at No. 20.

Last week, the Huskies worked on being more aggressive before a match against Kent State.

“We did individual workouts to get ready [this week],” 141-pound Andy Hiatt said. “The coaches worked with people on different skills and what they needed to work on.”

After last week’s victory over Kent State, NIU is looking to win its first road conference meet of the season. The Huskies have lost two of their last three road conference openers.

“We have to take each team one at a time,” Kirgan said. “We need to wrestle each week like we would versus any team. We just need to go out there and compete, it doesn’t matter if we are wrestling so-and-so or Central Michigan.”