GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The #12 ranked University of Providence men's wrestling team is prepared for a big weekend as they travel to Louisville, Kentucky for the National Duals this weekend.

The Argos will begin the double-elimination tournament at 9 a.m. on Friday morning against #10 Southeastern, who coincidentally gave the Argos their last loss by a score of 22-18.

"They beat us in some places where we'd normally think we'd win," interim head coach Steve Komac said. "It was a very quality opponent and I thought our effort was good."

The Argos ended 2019 in Arizona, where the loss to Southeastern took place. They ended up going 3-1 against NAIA schools before a two-week break for the holidays. The break gave the team and Komac a chance to reflect on the team's status before preparing for a run in 2020.

"We're a very competitive team," Komac said. "We're competing with a lot of good effort. We went into the break with a lot of positive things that happened. We also went into the break really banged up. There's been a lot of weekends where we've had four starters sitting out. It shows some depth in our room. We've won quite a few matches a bunch of duals not being healthy this fall. It shows that even though we have ten guys who we might name as starters, I think we have 14/15 kids in the room who are competing really well. The depth is good and the depth is necessary for injuries but also the regional tournament when we try to qualify for nationals."

The new national rankings that were released on Sunday actually adjusted the positioning of the bracket for the Argos. They'll start with a rematch against Southeastern. If they win that match, they'll take the mats against #1 Grandview, who has won the National Championship eight years in a row.  

 "It's really good for us if we play them," Komac said. "We want to move forward. We want to play that competition. The quality of the teams at the national duals are so good that no matter who we wrestle this weekend we're going to be against good competition. The next two weeks will be two of the toughest weeks of our entire season. We're going to see the best kids in the country over the next two weeks. It's important for our kids to see where we're at. I love dual meet tournaments because they have a heavy team-focus to them. If one guys stumbles and the other guys pick him up it works."

"I think we'll be very competitive," he said. "We're close to full strength. In really, really tight competitions sometimes not being at full strength can be the difference-maker. We're at full strength enough to be competitive. Our best-case scenario would be getting as many duals in as possible. We don't want to go out and be out of the tournament in two rounds. We want to be in there three, four, five rounds deep. That will be the ultimate goal. If we can get three plus duals in then we will have a great weekend."

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