Andrew Alirez is back on a University of Northern Colorado wrestling mat, and so are the Bears with high hopes for the program's milestone season.
UNC started its 100th anniversary of college wrestling in Greeley on Saturday night with a match against nationally ranked Big 12 Conference opponent Missouri.
The Bears, who didn't become the UNC Bears until the late 1970s, wore special throwback purple singlets with the name Greeley State on front to represent UNC's past. The school was called the State Normal School at Greeley went it was founded in 1889. The names were later Colorado State Teachers College, Colorado State College of Education at Greeley and Colorado State College before adopting the University of Northern Colorado in 1970.
If starting the season with a top 10-ranked opponent wasn't enough, UNC also on Saturday welcomed back to the lineup NCAA champion and hometown hero Andrew Alirez following a redshirt year last season.
Despite celebrating the past, UNC also honored several alumni wrestlers during halftime, and a level of excitement about the future, the preseason-ranked No. 6 Tigers defeated UNC 24-14 in front of a near-capacity announced crowd of 2,456 at Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley. The arena seats about 3,000 fans for wrestling, Bears coach Troy Nickerson said earlier in the week.
The arena bleachers were pulled out and available in all four sections of the arena. UNC was ranked 20th in a preseason poll by the website FloWrestling.
"It was crazy to see the crowd like that, first of all," said Dominick Serrano, UNC's starting 133 pounder and a four-time state champion at Windsor High School. "I grew up here and I've never seen that gym that packed. It was great."
Serrano, a junior transfer in his second season with the Bears, changed the atmosphere in the arena with his 16-5 major decision over Kade Moore in the fourth match of the evening. Serrano's win was the second straight win for the Bears, and brought many in the crowd to their feet.
Missouri won the first two bouts at 197 and 285. Steve Poulin started the Bears' run of three straight wins with a 7-1 decision against Gage Walker at 125.
Alirez's marquee bout with No. 10 ranked Josh Edmond followed Serrano's victory. Almost two years removed from college wrestling, Alirez didn't disappoint with an 11-2 major-decision victory. He's ranked No. 1 in early season polls including from FloWrestling and InterMat.
"He wrestled really, really savvy," Nickerson said. "That kid's tough, that kid's really good. Andrew went out there and he did his job, right? And I thought he wrestled a very controlled match. I thought he looked great."
Edmond, a two-time NCAA Tournament qualifier, fell a round short of earning All-American status at NCAAs earlier this year. The top eight finishers in each weight class are named All-Americans at NCAAs.
"He's a really tough guy," Alirez said of Edmond. "Real fast, explosive and I knew that going in. So, there was a respect there where I'm like 'Hey, you better not walk out there and, you know, disappoint all these fans. You better get your butt in gear and get fired up.'"
The crowd was treated to a short video presentation of Alirez's career highlights before he jogged out of the big, yellow and blue inflatable Bear-head tunnel to meet Edmond.
Alirez said the video was awesome to see, he complimented the work of the producers adding the presentation gave him another dose of confidence.
"Like, hey, I am that dude," he said. "I know it's been a little second since I've been out there. But, yeah, it was just something so special."
Alirez capped a 28-0 season in 2022-23 with the NCAA 141-pound title in March 2023 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Alirez is UNC's first individual wrestling champion in the Division I era.
He opted to take an Olympic redshirt year last season while training to try out for the U.S. Olympic team that competed at the Summer Games in Paris.
Alirez's dreams fell short there in the spring, ending in an 11-9 semifinal loss to Nick Lee at Penn State University. He considered leaving UNC for another program, even entering the transfer portal in May before deciding to return for his final collegiate season.
Alirez said the entire evening was special, from the size of the crowd to their support for him and teammates. While there were a few sounds of "Boo," Alirez's nickname, during his bout, the crowd was equally responsive to the performance of Alirez's teammates.
UNC went to the break with a 7-4 lead in the match after Alirez's victory.
Out of halftime, Benji Alanis led Logan Gioffre 4-3 late in their bout at 149. UNC coaches and athletes stood and implored the crowd to get behind Alanis, while waving their arms upward. The crowd responded, but Gioffre won 7-4 in overtime.
Vinny Zerban, a national tournament qualifier last year with Serrano and Poulin, beat James Conway 8-4 at 157 for a 14-10 UNC lead.
Missouri won the final three bouts of the match, starting with Cam Steed pinning Bears true freshman Daishun Powe in 29 seconds at 165. Keegan O'Toole, the nation's No. 1 wrestler at 174 scored a 16-point technical fall with a 20-4 win over Aydin Rix-McElhinney.
Colton Hawks closed out the match at 184 for the Tigers with a 9-1 win over A.J. Heeg.
Nickerson and Alirez were complimentary of the performances and potential of both Powe and Rix-McElhinney despite their losses.
Nickerson said he told Powe that Steed was going to sprint from the start of the bout. The coach said Powe received a "good introduction" to the difference between college and high school wrestling.
Alirez called Powe "damn good" and "something special," despite the short debut match. Alirez said he thought Powe might have froze up a little and he competed like a freshman.
"I'm not worried about him," Nickerson added. "He's going to continue to progress. We're really high on him still."
Rix-McElhinney, a junior from South Berwick, Maine, won a gold medal at 77-kilograms in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Pan-Am Championships in Lima, Peru in July. Rix-McElhinney qualified for the Greco-Roman U20 World Championships in Spain in September. He finished ninth.
Nickerson said Missouri's O'Toole, who beat Rix-McElhinney, might be the best wrestler in the country "outside of, maybe Andrew."
"I mean that kid is elite," the coach said of O'Toole, a back-to-back NCAA champion in 2022 and 2023. "I'm really happy with his (Rix-Elhinney's) progressions. He's very hard on himself. He wants to be at that level."
Alirez said that when he arrived at UNC in 2019 he wanted to generate an interest in the program leading to future athletes surpassing his accomplishments. Alirez came to UNC as the nation's top recruit, highly touted and after winning four state titles at Greeley Central.
"I did get a little video, but I wish there's something going out to see the crowd that came out tonight to support the Bears," Alirez said. "Greeley is a wrestling town, and they're loving it. They're getting into it. We're going to continue to put on a show, wrestle hard and go out there and put some points on the board for the fans coming out."