UNK wrestling hosts annual Younes Hospitality Open

KEARNEY, Neb. (KSNB) - Over 700 wrestlers came to Kearney for the annual Younes Hospitality Open. The open includes wrestlers of all different collegiate levels.

The open gives coaches the opportunity to get the young wrestlers a taste of college wrestling before the conference schedule starts.

“We are a young team this year. This is a great kind of place where we are right now. Check in for us. It’s about coming in and getting a feel for college wrestling, so this might be the first time we’ll get five matches in a day, so how do you do with that? How do you navigate that mentally and physically? For us, we’re really looking to grow physically and mentally here today, and it should be a great challenge for us, “Hastings College wrestling coach Trey Heckadon said.

With the influx of traffic due to the number of schools attending the event, the open is also beneficial to the city of Kearney.

Nice places to stay and good restaurants are in town. We are able to run 16 mats most college opens, or 2 to 300 competitors ran in eight minutes, and I can work from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. We run 16 mats, trying to get everybody out of here by five so they can get back to their homes in a decent amount of time, especially around Thanksgiving break,” UNK wrestling coach Dalton Jensen said.

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