For the first time in nine years, Eastern will host the NCAA West Regional for wrestling.

This will be the first time Eastern hosts the regional since the schools included in the tournament decided to rotate who hosts the regionals.

This year the Panthers and Fresno State were the finalists to host the regional. Eastern beat out the Bulldogs for the tournament. Matches will start Saturday at Lantz Arena.

“We used to have a formula for who was going to host the regional at the end of the year, but we have gone to just using a rotational basis lately,” head coach Ralph McCausland said. “We have run the tournament here before, and we will have a good feel for it.”

This year’s field will be extremely competitive with a couple highly touted teams and two other solid squads.

Teams competing in the 2003 West Regional will match the Panthers up against some of the toughest competition in the country.

Such nationally recognized programs as Northern Iowa and Fresno State have entered the regional this year.

Northern Iowa finished its season with a record of 12-6 and were nationally ranked at No. 11.

Even worse news for the Panthers is they are winless against Northern Iowa in 15 meetings. Again, this year, Northern Iowa seems to have the better squad and are expected to go deep in the tournament.

“They seem to be the front runners in the field by far,” McCausland said. “They have put together an exceptional team this year, but we can match up well against them in some areas. Guys like Frank DiFilippis at 157 pounds and Pat Dowty at 133 pounds are both very strong for us.”

The only doubt about Dowty is how he will match up with his opponent, Northern Iowa’s Pat Garcia, who he has lost to two times already this year.

Northern Iowa also enters the top rated wrestler in the nation into the tournament. Junior Dylan Long is Northern Iowa’s 141 lbs. wrestler and is the team’s first top-rated wrestler in three years. Long finished the season with a record of 25-3.

Another solid team entered in this year’s field will be Fresno State, who actually finished one match better than Northern Iowa with a record of 13-6.

Fresno could have entered the regional as the hottest team had it not been for a recent trip to Iowa. After winning 10 straight matches, the Bulldogs could not get a victory in Iowa going 0-2. Both Iowa State and Northern Iowa were able to beat Fresno and send it back to California with a couple more losses.

“Fresno does have a number of good individuals who wrestle well, including guys like Baca and Botelho.” McCausland said.

Botelho could be its best wrestler this year after he compiled a 30-6 record over the 2002-2003 season.

Because of the Bulldogs youth, the team could be a little more vulnerable than Northern Iowa ,especially since Northern Iowa already handled Fresno in impressive fashion winning 33-3.

Air Force and Wyoming also enter the regional with above .500 records. Both have solid teams that could turn the tables and upset one of the top two teams.

With two ranked wrestlers on Wyoming’s squad this year, Levi Prevost and Brad Steele, this team should provide a tough match up for whoever it faces in the first round.

Air Force was the only team in this year’s field to be able to beat the top team, Northern Iowa. It did so due to a new rule that named Air Force the winner after the two teams finished with a 17-17 tie.

Eastern has struggled this year, but due to injury problems throughout this season, the Panthers have not wrestled as well as they could individually. This gives Eastern some hope since the team is in its best shape of the season.

“Health has been a frustration for us all year long, but we seem to be in good shape right now,” McCausland said.

“But I think we can be successful because we have our older players who seem to have their sights set and they seem to be focused. With all of the practice and conditioning we have done throughout this year, I am confident we will feel good and wrestle well.”