If you’ve tried to catch Northern Colorado during the first eight weeks of this college wrestling season, the opportunities to do so have been few and far between.

But fret not, because things are about to pick up in a major way for the 13th-ranked Bears.

After competing across just four days thus far in November and December, that number will quadruple between now and the postseason in March.

A home quad dual event this Saturday (streaming live on Flo) against a trio of local junior college programs kicks things off. That’ll be followed shortly thereafter by eight consecutive weekends of action, beginning with the Southern Scuffle (Jan. 4-5).

For head coach Troy Nickerson — now in his 11th season at the helm of the UNC program —  any inconvenience for him and his wrestlers is overshadowed by an eagerness looking forward to the slate in front of them.

“I like where we’re at,” said the 2009 NCAA champ. “I think we’re wrestling well, we’re healthy…we’re training through right now and getting to that point where we get to the second semester looking to continue the momentum from there.”

Nickerson spoke about scheduling, the season, superstar senior Andrew Alirez and more in a midweek conversation with FloWrestling.

Life As A Modern-Day Mid-Major

“It’s always kind of a crapshoot,” Nickerson said of the challenge that comes with year-to-year scheduling at a program like Northern Colorado.

Not only does its location in the Rocky Mountain region limit some of its access to open tournaments, but UNC’s own rise and success as a program has in some ways hindered its ability to face its most desired competition.

“As our team has continued to get better it’s hard to find teams to wrestle us, to be honest,” Nickerson said. 

“I mean, we always want to wrestle. We’re looking to compete whenever we can and against whoever (we can).”

Another element at play is the impending revenue-sharing era on the horizon for college athletics. Not only do schools want as many home dates as possible to generate ticket sales, but they want visiting opposition with a name brand and prestige in hopes of boosting interest and attendance.

And even though Northern Colorado currently sits in the top 15 of Flo’s latest team tournament rankings, it may not satisfy some of the other criteria that schools (especially power conference ones) may be looking for.

Conversely, said Nickerson: “It’s become more important than ever to make sure we pack our arena anytime we’re competing at home.”

The program’s lone home date to this point in the season certainly met that goal, as 2,456 fans flocked to Bank of Colorado Arena on November 2 to watch UNC’s season-opening dual against Missouri.

Events like the previously mentioned quad dual(s), the Southern Scuffle, plus a full Big 12 conference slate will keep the Bears both well-occupied and challenged between now and the postseason.

But there’s also another date that Nickerson has circled on his calendar — not only for its importance amidst Northern Colorado’s 2024-25 season, but also for the future of college wrestling.

“I Think Dual Meets Are The Future Of Our Sport.”

On Jan. 10-11 in Cedar Falls, Iowa, 102 college wrestling programs from around the country will descend upon the UNI-Dome for the National Wrestling Coaches Association’s National Duals.

And for the first time since 2011, the event will include NCAA Division I men’s teams (14 in total) — among them, Northern Colorado.

From Nickerson’s perspective, the event represents a chance to both compete for his own program as well as to (hopefully) help build something for the long-term benefit of the sport.

“I don’t mind the term ‘mid-major,’” he said, referring to UNC’s current place in the D1 wrestling landscape — much like the rest of the field that’ll assemble in Cedar Falls next month.

“Getting like-funded programs around, I think it matters.

“As it (National Duals) continues to grow throughout the years, hopefully everybody joins in, and it turns into where we can do a real dual meet championship with everybody involved.”

Nickerson himself competed at National Duals as an athlete at Cornell (2006-10),  and he views both this event, as well as the dual format itself, as vital to college wrestling’s capacity for growth going forward.

“While there are great storylines to follow with individuals in wrestling, the common fan can follow teams much more,” he said. “I think we need to make the team component matter more, and this is one example of how we can do that.

“We want to create a big event. We want to get a lot of butts in seats. We want paying customers to come in where we can generate revenue and help support our programs.

“I think dual meets are the future of our sport. We need dual meets that matter.”

“More Of A Sprint Horse Than A Thoroughbred” – Andrew Alirez Readies For A Run At A Second NCAA title

As Nickerson also noted amongst his aside on the importance of dual competitions, there are plenty of great individual storylines to follow in college wrestling as well.

And it just so happens that one of them — undefeated 2023 NCAA champion Andrew Alirez — is on the Bears’ current roster.

Following an Olympic redshirt season, a dip into the transfer portal, and nearly 600 days since he last donned a Northern Colorado singlet, the hometown hero returned to UNC’s lineup in early November looking to finish his college career in style.

Alirez’s victory in the NCAA final some 20 months ago — the first national title by a Northern Colorado wrestler since 1962 — was a gamechanger for both him and the program.

“He’s the man in Greeley (Colo.),” his head coach said. “He grew up here. His whole family’s here. Everybody knows…you could ask anybody on the street. They don’t even have to know anything about wrestling, and they know who Andrew Alirez is — and that matters, right?”

“And it matters to him. It matters to our program. It puts us on the map.”

Alirez (3-0), ranked #1 nationally at 141 pounds, rejoins a stacked weight class featuring both the 2024 champ (Ohio State’s Jesse Mendez) and runner up (Penn State’s Beau Bartlett).

Nickerson describes his superstar senior as the “quintessential student-athlete” who also got “a lot better” during his Olympic redshirt year.

He also has a better understanding of how to best cater to the needs and goals of his now-veteran athlete — whom he refers to as “more of a sprint horse than a thoroughbred.”

“He thrives when he can really focus on one competition,” Nickerson said. “I really believe that’s where he’s at his best.”

If Alirez is at his best once again this March, there’s a good chance he could make a final piece of history — for himself, for the city of Greeley, and for Northern Colorado wrestling.

More Than A One-Man Band

Northern Colorado has tallied the following finishes at the last four NCAA Championships:

T-48th (2021), T-44 (2022), 23rd (2023), 50th (2024)

It doesn’t take long to identify the outlier team score as having coincided with Alirez’s title run. And with him back on the mat this season, expectations are automatically raised for how high the Bears could finish in March of 2025.

One wrestler can only carry a team so far, however.

Thankfully, this team has a lot more firepower at its disposal that could make for a truly historic year for the UNC program.

Seventh-ranked Stevo Poulin (125 pounds) is a two-time blood round finisher at the national tournament.

“He’s kind of gotten his heart broken two years in a row now,” Nickerson said of the junior.

Meanwhile, fellow junior Vinny Zerban (ranked 17th at 157) has his own shot at redemption.

A year ago, Zerban parlayed an undefeated regular season into the #1 seed at the Big 12 Championships before taking seventh, followed by a brief 1-2 exit at NCAAs.

“Unfortunately, he got a little dinged up at the end of the year…and it showed. He had a really poor conference and national tournament,” his head coach said matter-of-factly.

“(But) it hasn’t fazed him at all…I think he’s right back to where he needs to be (this season).”

Along with Alirez, that duo — plus 14th-ranked 133-pounder Dominick Serrano — gives Northern Colorado a real chance to climb even higher up the team standings. And in doing so, more program history could be well within reach.

“I think the most we’ve ever qualified (for the NCAA Championships) is five,” said Nickerson of his team’s goals for the rest of this season. “We want to beat that record and then we want to have the most All-Americans that we’ve ever had — which we need to get past one.”

But the Bears aren’t just thinking of breaking the record, they aim to shatter it into oblivion.

“We’ve got plenty of guys that can do it (become All-Americans) …it would be a hell of a year if we can put four guys on the podium,” Nickerson said. 

“So, that’s that goal. And it comes down to each guy doing their job. As each guy takes care of business, once we get into March, the team is going to flourish.”

Watch Northern Colorado duals this season live on Flowrestling.