OREM, Utah – After being on the road for the first two months of the season, the Utah Valley University wrestling team will hit the home mats for the first time on Saturday when it hosts the UVU Open in the PE Building.
 
This year's tournament will mark the eighth annual installment of the UVU Open and action is slated to begin on four mats at 9 a.m. Live results can be followed throughout the competition by visiting TrackWrestling.com.
 
Wrestlers from around 21 schools are scheduled to compete on Saturday, as the tournament will feature grapplers from Arizona State, Bakersfield, Boise State, Cal Poly, Grand Canyon, Northern Colorado, Oregon State, Stanford, UVU, Wyoming, Bacone, Cal Baptist, Colorado Mesa, Embry Riddle, Glendale CC, Great Falls, Menlo, Northwest College, San Francisco State, Western State and Western Wyoming.
 
Mainly backups and redshirts will take to the mats on Saturday. Scheduled to compete for the Wolverines are sophomore Abel Gomez (184 pounds) and redshirt freshman Koleton Hardy (157), as well as 10 other wrestlers who will be competing unattached at the tournament. Those unattached grapplers are 125-pounders Tyler Scott and Josh Temple, 133-pounder Jarod Maynes, 149-pounders Brayden Humpherys and DJ Argyle, 157-pounders Raider Lofthouse and Michael Suwyn, 174-pounder Jesse Christensen, 184-pounder Will Sumner and heavyweight Dustin Dennison.
 
The Wolverines will enter the tournament off of a strong showing at the Reno Tournament of Champions on Dec. 21. There, junior 133-pounder Jade Rauser led the way by placing second in his weight class with a 4-1 clip. Fellow junior Ross Taylor (184) also finished in the top six of his weight class, as he took sixth. Dennison too took sixth at heavyweight while competing unattached.
 
Redshirt freshman Jed Mellen led the way for Utah Valley at last season's UVU Open by winning the 133-pound title while competing unattached. Junior 157-pounder Logan Addis too had a nice showing as he took second, while Taylor, Aryton Almberg (197) and Jordan Karst (285) also placed in the top four of the tournament.
 
Saturday's tournament will get underway at 9 a.m. and is anticipated to conclude around 4 or 5 p.m.
 
Up Next for the Wolverines
Following the Open, UVU will remain home for the entire month of January with four upcoming home dual meets on the horizon. The Wolverines will begin the stretch by taking on conference foe and 21st-ranked Wyoming the following Saturday (Jan. 17), and will follow with contests against Air Force (Jan. 23), as well as back-to-back Pac-12 foes in No. 19 Oregon State (Jan. 30) and Stanford (Jan. 31). 
 
UVU's Probable Lineup
125 – Tyler Scott, unattached (1-2) and Josh Temple, unattached (4-2)
133 – Jarod Maynes, unattached (7-4)
141 – Open
149 – Brayden Humpherys, unattached (8-2) and DJ Argyle, unattached (1-5)
157 – Koleton Hardy (3-6), Raider Lofthouse, unattached (0-0) and Michael Suwyn, unattached (6-3)
165 – Open
174 – Jesse Christensen, unattached (6-4)
184 – Abel Gomez (2-4) and Will Sumner, unattached (3-3)
197 – Open
HWT – Dustin Dennison, unattached (13-6)