In Colorado wrestling circles, Tony Mustari needs no introduction.
The Northern Colorado sophomore was a three-time state champion at Greeley Central High, and became the state’s first prep grappler to win two national championships.
He finished with a 161-11 prep record, winning his final 105 matches, and had a 40-bout streak of not being scored upon.
On Wednesday, Mustari will be the David against the Goliath who is Nebraska’s Paul Donohue, ranked No. 1 in the country at 125 pounds.
Mustari (18-3) will wrestle Donohue (6-0) when the No. 11 Cornhuskers visit the Bears in a nonleague dual meet. Donohue, a junior, is the defending 125-pound NCAA champion. He went 35-5 last season en route to becoming Nebraska’s ninth individual champion.
Among the 10 weight classes, Nebraska has nine ranked wrestlers. UNC has two: Mustari (20th, Wrestling Report) and heavyweight Reece Hopkin (14th, Wrestling Mall).
Mustari, the son of longtime Greeley Tribune sports writer Sam Mustari, already has won three tournament titles. He captured Nebraska-Kearney’s Loper Open, Wyoming’s Cowboy Open and the UNC Open, where he was named most outstanding wrestler. Two of his three losses have been to nationally ranked opponents.
Hopkin, meanwhile, is tied with Bart Brown (1988-92) for 10th in school history with 84 wins. Last week, Hopkin was named Western Wrestling Conference athlete of the week after going 3-0 at the UNC tournament. He had two pins, including one over Joe Nord of top-ranked Minnesota, and a 10-0 major decision over David Benner of Northern Iowa.
UNC begins its Western Wrestling Conference schedule Saturday against visiting South Dakota State. This is the second year of the WWC, which consists of Air Force, North Dakota State, Northern Iowa, South Dakota State, Utah Valley State and Wyoming. In its first year, the WWC sent 19 wrestlers to the NCAA championship.
Denver’s dynamic duo on world hockey stage
Ruegsegger, Rakhshani lead USA to World Junior semifinals. The U.S. World Junior team takes a 3-0 record into today’s final round-robin game against Finland in the World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic.
Regardless of today’s outcome, the young Americans (20-under) have earned a bye into the semifinals, which begin Friday.
University of Denver sophomores Tyler Ruegsegger and Rhett Rakhshani have been key cogs for Team USA. Ruegsegger, who grew up in Lakewood, is an assistant captain and power- play and penalty-killing specialist. He had a power-play goal in Saturday’s 3-2 win against Russia, with Rakhshani later adding an assist. The DU duo has produced points in the first three games.
TV GAME OF THE WEEK
Armed Forces Bowl. Don’t sleep in too late this morning, preserving your Z’s for the New Year’s Eve celebration, because the Armed Forces Bowl gets underway at 10:30 a.m. Air Force (9-3) takes on California (6-6) in a matchup between teams heading in opposite directions.
The Falcons, who have more than turned it around under first-year coach Troy Calhoun, have won three straight games and six of their past seven. The Golden Bears have lost three straight and six of their past seven.
This is Air Force’s first bowl game in five years, since the Zoomies lost to Virginia Tech 20-13 in the 2002 San Francisco Bowl. The Falcons’ last bowl victory was 2000, when they beat Fresno State 37-34 in the Silicon Valley Bowl.
BOWL-A-THON
Smorgasmord of college football, folks. Beginning today, 14 bowl games will take place in four days. Rejoice, couch potatoes!
If we had to pick one can’t-miss affair, it would have to be Tuesday’s Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Curious minds want to know if former Colorado walk-on quarterback Colt Brennan of Hawaii can keep the Warriors (12-0) unbeaten.
AVS GO HOME-AND-HOME
Colorado icers have gone cold. The Avalanche has dropped two straight at home, including Saturday’s 3-1 disappointment at the Pepsi Center to the lowly Los Angeles Kings. Perhaps the Avs will fare better in the desert, where they’ll visit Phoenix tonight before concluding the home-and- home set with the Coyotes on Wednesday at The Can.
