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Grapplers will be with elite in Las Vegas

Right about now, as students are in the midst of pulling together end-of-the-semester work and preparing for final exams, a weekend trip to Las Vegas sounds mighty nice.

Of course, that is a dream too good to be true for most Boston University students — but not for the members of the BU wrestling team, which leaves today for Sin City.

The Terriers won’t be gambling the night away and cruising the strip, however. BU will compete in one of the most important tournaments of the season — and the Terriers’ biggest before the National Championships in the spring — at the Las Vegas tournament.

The 45-team meet will feature 13 of the top 20 wrestling programs in the nation, including No. 4 Oklahoma State University, No. 5 University of Illinois, No. 7 University of Michigan, No. 9 Lehigh University, No. 10 Arizona State University and No. 18 Ohio State University.

It will be BU’s first trip to Las Vegas, not to mention a big opportunity to see the best of the best.

“The bottom line is to go out and establish yourself and we are looking forward to it,” said BU coach Carl Adams. “There are a lot of quality kids and almost all the best teams. We hope to have a good tournament and that means a trip to the top 12. It’s going to be a real grinder, definitely the closest thing to the NCAAs this year.”

The cross-country trip is also going to be an chance for the Terriers to continue their rampant start to the season that began in Binghamton, N.Y., with a strong finish in the Colonial Open Nov. 11. BU then went on to register a third-place finish at a tournament Nov. 18 at the U.S. Naval Academy. In all, the Terriers have picked up right where they left off last season as one of the top teams in the Northeast region. BU also sent two of its grapplers to the NCAA tournament in the spring, then-junior Malik Elliott and then-freshman Jose Leon.

“We felt we had a really good tournament [at Navy],” Adams said. “We had three individual champs and one fourth- and sixth-place finish. Last year we finished sixth, so we improved.”

“At Binghamton we got in a lot of matches against some scrubby teams, but at Navy we wrestled much better teams, so it gave us a chance to prepare and see where we are,” said junior Jay Holder.

And according to the Terriers, they are prepared and rearing to go.

“We’re pretty excited; we’ve been working real hard all year,” said junior Mike Messina. “The tournament is going to be tremendous in size and very competitive. We are going to go out there and leave it all on the mat.”

Holder agreed, saying, “We won’t let our nerves get the best of us. The program is starting to come out and we feel we can go with the best of them. We want to win. We want to win as many matches as we can. We want to turn some heads.”

Adams shared his team’s sentiments, but said it would be difficult to gauge how the tournament will go for BU among the nation’s elite wrestling programs.

“It’s hard to tell [how BU will do]. It would be great to finish in the top 20, but that depends on how some of our individuals do. We’re still young,” Adams said.

A strong meet at Las Vegas would not only send BU riding high into several upcoming December meets, but also bring attention to the Terriers’ emerging program and to East Coast wrestling, a portion of the country overshadowed by the wrestling-crazed Midwest.

“We could make a statement for Boston and show them that we can hang with the best of them,” Messina said. “It could definitely be a big boost for our confidence and for our reputation. We’ve been overlooked recently, and in the last two years we’ve been on the rise. We want to let people know throughout the country that we can be a force to be reckoned with.”

With scores, top-20 finishes and individual success aside, Adams said the opportunity to be among renowned wrestling universities is a success in itself.

“Any time you have competition as good as there will be in Las Vegas, it’s always good for the team,” Adams said. “No matter what happens it will be a positive experience.”

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