Utah Valley University hosts two conference foes, No. 2 Penn State this weekend

OREM, Utah -- Coming off a sweep of Pac-12 foes Cal Poly and Stanford last weekend in Palo Alto, Calif., the Utah Valley wrestling squad will close out its home dual slate with three crucial matches Friday and Saturday.

Western Wrestling Conference rivals South Dakota State and North Dakota State will visit Orem on Friday, then defending national champion and second-ranked Penn State will roll into town on Saturday. All three matches will be held in the UCCU Center.

Friday's duals with SDSU and NDSU begin at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively, while Saturday's contest with the Nittany Lions is set for 7 p.m.

"These WWC duals are very important for us because they will help determine where we will be seeded for conference and it will also be great to have Penn State come in because they have a ton of talent," UVU head coach Greg Williams said. "We are going to go out and fight and we'll see what happens. We like to have home matches and we are very pleased to be hosting them, especially Penn State."

Live results for each dual can be found at WolverineGreen.com, provided through TrackWrestling. All three contests will also be streamed online at uvu.edu/uvutv and Saturday's match with PSU will be televised live locally on UVU-TV.

Last weekend's victories over Cal Poly and Stanford snapped a five-match losing streak for the Wolverines (5-7, 0-3 WWC). UVU took down Cal Poly 19-17 behind a late win from 184-pounder David Prieto, whose 5-1 overtime victory late in the dual salvaged the match. The Wolverines followed that victory with a dominant performance against Stanford, racing out to a quick 16-0 lead after winning the first four matches of the contest. UVU would go on to win seven of the dual's 10 bouts on its way to a solid 25-10 result.

Josh Wilson, a junior wrestling in the 149-pound weight class, is currently ranked 14th nationally for the Wolverines. Wilson is 14-7 overall this season and is 6-3 in dual matches.

UVU has also gotten strong outputs from 125-pounder Colby Christensen (18-10), 165-pounder Ethan Smith (17-11), and heavyweight Dustin Dennison (22-15) this season. South Dakota State (4-6, 0-3 WWC) comes into Friday having split a pair of duals at the SIUE Triangular, then falling at conference opponent Northern Iowa last weekend. The Jackrabbits were defeated by Indiana, 30-8, but rebounded that night with 25-15 triumph over host Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. SDSU followed that with 25-12 loss at the hands of UNI the following Sunday.