Husker wrestling squad combines experienced veterans, promising newcomers

Ignore the flashy seventh place ranking. To the Nebraska wrestling team, it's simply a number.

"We don't wrestle to prove that we're this or that," NU senior Stephen Dwyer said. "We wrestle to compete. That's what this team is about. We love to compete, and we have a lot of guys who are going to come out and do that. We don't wrestle for status."

Nebraska earned its current top-10 ranking primarily because of a talented group of returning veterans.

The Huskers will welcome back four national championship qualifiers including Dwyer, Jordan Burroughs, Craig Brester and Tucker Lane.

Burroughs, a defending national champion, enters this season as the top-ranked wrestler in the country at 157 pounds.

Brester also enters the 2009 season as a national title contender.

The Howells, Neb.-native currently ranks second among all 197-pounders. Brester entered last season's national championships as the favorite but fell just short, losing his only match of the tournament in the finals.

Fellow senior Dwyer is ranked sixth in the nation at the 165-pound weight class.

In the heavyweight division, Lane occupies the ninth spot in the nation. But the sophomore, like the rest of the squad, said the rankings are irrelevant.

"It doesn't really mean anything to us," Lane said. "Rankings are just rankings, whether we're ranked first, eighth or not ranked at all. We're still going to go out there and compete for ourselves and continue to work hard. We'll let other people talk about our rankings. We're just going to go out there and try and get better every match."

The team will have a lot of new and young faces stepping into varsity roles this season. Freshman C.J. Napier will hold down the 133-pound weight class. Redshirt freshman Josh Ihnen, who was the most successful non-varsity wrestler for NU last season with a 24-5 record, will start at 184.

The 149-pound division will undoubtedly be occupied by yet another redshirt freshman, either Chris Hacker or Ross Grande.

In the 125-pound weight class, freshman David Klingsheim will compete with junior Dalton Bullard for a starting spot.

Over the offseason, the Cornhuskers added junior college transfer Mike Koehnlein to the roster. Koehnlein, who went 2-0 in the teams' pre-season Wrestle-Offs, is likely to jump into the 141-pound spot for the Huskers.

With the new faces, Lane said the team chemistry and camaraderie is becoming a major point of emphasis for this team.