Stepping back on the mat for the first time in over a month the Northwest College wrestling team will be heading to Miami, Oklahoma, to take part in the NJCAA Coaches Duals on Friday and Saturday.

The Trappers have been preparing for one of the most important weekends of the season, with coach Jim Zeigler excited about his team’s return from break.

“I think we came back in pretty good shape,” Zeigler said. “We’ve been working hard, wrestling, lifting and conditioning. It’s hard to be at your very best when you just get back, but everybody’s in the same boat, so I think we could be just as good as everybody else when we get there.”

He said the Trappers are continuing to focus on themselves, instead of what other teams are doing to this point.

The team has been on campus with the college providing meals in the new student center facility.

“The school paid for our lunch and dinner, two meals a day at our new cafeteria. It’s been awesome. Great gathering for our guys, very generous of the school to do that,” Zeigler said. “Hoping to do that every year. I’d like to be able to stick around a little longer before Christmas break and do the same thing. Soccer teams come in early and those things. So we’d like to stay late after finals and stay up until Dec. 20. Shorten the break for our teams, I think it’ll really help and this has made a huge difference.”

The dual tournament will feature pool play action on Friday, before the teams are separated based on records on Saturday.

Northwest is tied for No. 13 in the NJCAA wrestling poll which was taken just before break, and has three wrestlers ranked at their respective weights.

Those wrestlers include Asad Fayzullaev being third at 165 pounds, Austin Richens seventh at 197 pounds and Jett Swain eighth at heavyweight.

Zeigler said that to this point the Trappers are focusing on how they do things, getting ready for the tournament.

“We’re just focusing on how we do things, how we approach each day and how we compete — how we get the best out of ourselves,” Zeigler said. “The results will take care of itself. So we really haven’t talked about result-oriented stuff yet. We’re just talking about trying to get better, trying to get better each day, concentrate on ourselves and let that stuff sort itself out.”

He said that the team is healthy heading into the second half of the season, with Richens being the lone Trapper potentially returning to the mat who is still dealing with an injury from before the break.

Zeigler said he knows this will be a difficult weekend, but is looking forward to the long trip with the team before returning home next weekend for a home dual against Western Wyoming.

“This is a hard weekend of wrestling,” Zeigler said. “Coming back and jumping into a national dual situation where teams can have five-to-eight duals, there could be some teams that take some big hits here this weekend. We don’t want to be one of those … We’re really excited, everybody’s anxious to go and compete, get started in this second semester run and chase down that national title they want.”