Wrestling to Host MSU Open to Kick Off 2019-20 Season

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East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State wrestling kicks off its 2019-20 season by hosting the Michigan State Open on Saturday, Nov. 2 inside Jenison Field House.

Wrestling action kicks off with preliminary rounds beginning at 9:30 a.m. The semifinals are set to begin at approximately 3 p.m. with the finals to follow. Action can be followed live at TrackWrestling (gold, with a fee) and Spartan updates on twitter @wrestlingmsu. Admission is $15 for adults and $5 for high school and younger.

Fourth year head coach Roger Chandler knows this event is a great opportunity for his guys to go against some of the top talent in the country with 43 NCAA Qualifiers, five All-Americans and 49 wrestlers ranked in the top-20 of the preseason rankings in the field, and he knows the Spartans will be locked in for the opportunity.

"It forces every guy to be ready every match," said Chandler. "There's no working into the tournament and we've talked to the guys already this week about this, you have to be ready match one, your first match. Don't use that as a warmup match, treat this as the Big Ten tournament, the NCAA Championships. You have to be ready to go first match out of the gates because you don't know what your draw is going to be and there is no doubt that you will have a quality opponent right away."

The 2019 edition of the MSU Open is one of the largest to date, with 450 participants from 31 teams around the country making the trek to East Lansing for the all-day event. Highlighted by 18 Division I schools, including eight Big Ten teams, the MSU Open will have both an open division for college and post-college wrestlers and a freshman/sophomore division. A total of 17 schools will bring a full roster to the event.

"This is probably one of the toughest tournaments in the country this weekend that you're going to see all season long, where you're going to have the depth of talent, whether kids are redshirting or not, they will be at this event," said Chandler. "To see this all under one roof and guys competing against each other, you kind of get an idea of the present and the future of what college wrestling's going to look like at the D-I level. It's a great opportunity for fans to come out and see some of the nation's best wrestling out there."

The tournament will be a double elimination event with no team scores. Each wrestler will wrestle a maximum of six matches.

Spartans In Preseason Rankings
Rayvon Foley – 125
No. 6 - FloWrestling
No. 6 - InterMat
No. 6 - TrackWrestling

Jake Tucker – 157
No. 24 - FloWrestling
No. 33 - TrackWrestling

Drew Hughes – 165
No. 21 - FloWrestling
No. 18 - InterMat
No. 25 - TrackWrestling (174)

Cam Caffey – 184
No. 12 - FloWrestling
No. 12 - InterMat
No. 11 - TrackWrestling

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Players Mentioned

Rayvon Foley

Drew Hughes

Jake Tucker