The season is over for all but five NIU wrestlers. Despite that, the majority of the team was at Huskie Stadium practicing as usual.

Monday’s practice wasn’t mandatory, but the rest of the team wanted to stay in shape and show their support for the players who qualified for the NCAA Championships Thursday through Saturday in Kansas City, Mo.

Senior Scott Owen is trying to repeat as an All-American — he took fifth at last year’s event. Junior Ben Heizer is making his second appearance and feels that the 184-pound weight class is an open class for anyone to take because there is no clear-cut favorite. Josh Wooton and Sam Hiatt are making their first showings later this week. Senior 125-pound Marlon Felton is an alternate for the NCAAs.

The Huskies had a “light day” according to coach Dave Grant.

The rest of the team worked on takedowns, hand-fighting and then lifted weights.

Of the wrestlers involved in the NCAA Championships, Owen wrestled with George Kirgan, Heizer went up against assistant coach Raphael Davis, Wooton took on redshirt sophomore Alex Nelson and Hiatt practiced with assistant coach Jason Hayes.

Where will I go?

Owen was recently named the No. 1 wrestler on the coaches’ poll on www.wrestlingmall.com. Asked where he thinks he would be seeded for the NCAA Tournament, all that he could come up with was a good guess on where he would go.

“The pre-seeds had me at a No. 4 spot,” Owen said. “They are usually pretty accurate. They were accurate last season.”

The last two seasons the pre-seeds had Owen within one spot of his actual seedings.

Owen was ranked behind Ohio State’s Keaton Anderson, Minnesota’s Luke Becker and Oklahoma State’s Shane Roller in this year’s pre-seedings.

The pre-seeds were correct with where Owen would go, he did receive a No. 4 spot.

Heizer thought that he would be seeded anywhere from a No. 5 to No. 9 spot because he has been ranked in that window all season.

Heizer was correct where he thought he would go, but it was at the higher end. He received a No. 9 spot at the NCAAs.

First time may be a charm

Hiatt and Wooton are making their first trips to the NCAA Championships.

Grant thinks both Hiatt, a sophomore, and Wooton, a freshman, will do very well at the NCAAs.

“I think that the sky is definitely the limit with these two,” Grant said.

Hiatt talked about the advantages of going to the NCAAs un-seeded because there isn’t much pressure on him.

“I think that it is good being un-seeded because you might be able to sneak up on some people,” Hiatt said. “I think that a lot of people overlook the MAC, so we will try to surprise them.”

Owen getting razzed

After Owen got called for an illegal hold on Buffalo’s Labe Black at the MAC Championships, Heizer and Hiatt poked fun at their teammates expense.

Black received one point for the illegal hold. That one point hurt Owen because he couldn’t get a technical fall against Black in the championship. Owen won with a final of 22-8. If that point had not taken place, Owen would have won with a final of 22-7, which would be a technical fall because it would have been over a 15 point victory.

Heizer and Hiatt were asking for pointers with how to do illegal holds, which, for the record, was the first time Owen was called for using one this season.