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BSU wrestling prepares for No. 1 Iowa
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The Boise State wrestling team is in the middle of preparations for a grueling weekend with back-to-back duals Friday, followed by a showdown against the country’s No. 1 team, the University of Iowa, Sunday at Taco Bell Arena.
With a record of 9-1 and a recent shutout victory against Portland State University, the Broncos are confident about winning their matches against the University of Montana and Montana State on Friday.
“I’m not nervous for Friday, but the one on Sunday is going to be a tough one,” freshman Kurt Swartz said.
BSU Head coach Greg Randall has confidence in the team and views the match against Iowa as any other match.
“The only thing different,” Randall said, “is the hype and the buzz that’s going on around it. I think the biggest thing will be the crowd. I’d like to see my wrestlers feed off the fans and hopefully they can perform for them.”
Swartz also looks forward to the challenge.
“It shows that we’re getting better as a team for them to come all the way down here and want to wrestle us,” Swartz said.
The Broncos are currently No. 21 in the nation with four nationally ranked wrestlers, including Tyler Sherfey at 157-pounds, Swartz at 165-pounds, Adam Hall 149-pounds and Kirk Smith 184-pounds.
BSU’s top wrestlers might not see normal action on Friday, though, with Iowa lingering in the distance. That isn’t to say, however, that they are going to overlook the importance of getting his starters mixed in the competition Friday.
“We’re going to try to get some other guys some matches,” Randall said. “We’ve had some guys doing a great job all year long and we’d like to get them some matches, but I’d like to make sure that our number one guys get at least one match on Friday. Some of them are going to get two.”
According to Randall, many of the wrestlers have watched their opponent in other matches online and begun preparing strategies to defeat them.
“The main thing is that we need to wrestle hard and fight hard and have confidence that we can win,” Randall said.
The head coach plans to improve the Broncos’ conditioning and concentrate on things they do well to get ready for the Hawkeyes.
“Iowa has always been really strong at coming at you and wrestling hard and we just have to equal their intensity,” Randall said.
Swartz agrees.
“It’s going to be really tough, but I think we can win some matches and do pretty well,” Swartz says.
The goals are set high for the Broncos this weekend as Randall looks forward to some close matches.
“This will kind of dictate the future of bringing in other big teams,” Randall said.
TRACI HURLESS
Sports Writer
