DES MOINES, Iowa – It's go time!

Weigh-ins for the 2013 NAIA Wrestling National Championships begin at 8 a.m. CST with the first match of competition two hours after

Campbellsville University wrestling is ready to compete after a Thursday morning workout at the Jacobson Exhibition Center, a trip to Walmart and a relaxing afternoon at the West Des Moines Sheraton, well relaxing for all but the two or three having to cut weight for their first match.

As promised, I'll give you a preview of CU's 10 wrestlers competing this weekend, but first a brief recap of the day.

CU hit the mats at Jacobson from 10-11 a.m. This is my fourth season traveling with CU wrestling. Four of the individuals competing this week have been to each of the nationals I've been to, while many are making their first trip.

Upon entering the Jacobson Center, freshman Kyle Terry declared, "wow, this is big." DeCoreus Leavell tweeted a photo "my palace for 2 days!!" Obviously the excitement is mounting as time draws near.

Following workouts, CU cleared out the Pedialyte aisle at Walmart. No last minute runs the morning of the first round this year for grape Pedialyte. After overloading a shopping cart with bread, bagels, PB&J, ham, Activia, Boost, Gatorade, Pedialyte, a little of this and a little of that, CU was back to the hotel with enough food to fuel the team for the next two days.

Around 4 p.m. CST, I joined our fifth-year senior Jarvis Elam, CU's champion of character, in a trip to the Veteans Administration Central Iowa Community Living Center, where Elam and more than a dozen other representatives from their respective school spent an hour and a half visiting with residents.
 

Jarvis Elam (right) and Gabriel Roman talk with Navy veteran Roger Stroud.

Elam, who at first seemed a little uneasy about the experience, was all smiles once the visit began.

"It was good to hear the different stories and different experiences some of them had. It was really good, and I'm actually glad I came to experience it," Elam said. "Unfortunately I didn't qualify (for nationals), but I've been here for five years and have had good people at my weight class, and a lot of people in my position would have given up, but I stuck to it, and that's why I think I deserve the Champion of Character."

While at the VA, everyone had a chance to visit with veterans from the Army, Navy and Marines. It was interesting to see Elam and Missouri Baptist's Gabriel Roman spend a good bit of the time talking to each other while visiting with the vets also, especially since the two both wrestle 125 pounds in the NAIA East Region.

Following the trip to the VA, the two of us met up with the assistant coaches for a good BBQ dinner before going back to the hotel for the night.

As we waited for dinner, the final brackets for the two-day championship were released. The pairings went mostly unchanged except for now having eight wrestlers with a bye to the round of 16.

With that, let's meet the team …

At 125 pounds, CU is represented by freshman Robert Boston of Indianapolis, Ind. Boston qualified for the national tournament by receiving a wild card from the East Region coaches. Entering the tournament with a 6-7 record, he has won five matches this year by pin. Funny moment of the trip so far – his pride over finding sweat pants that fit him in the children's section at Walmart.

CU has two 133-pound redshirt juniors wrestling in the tournament – Tyler Alsip (Cincinnati, Ohio) and DeCoreus Leavell (Hopkinsville, Ky.).

Alsip, potentially the next member of CU's 100 wins club, is making his fourth trip to an NAIA National Championship. His first was in 2010 as a freshman drill partner for eventual 133-pound national champ Tommy Pretty. Alsip began competing in the national championship the following season as a redshirt freshman. In three seasons he has a career record of 71-35 entering the tournament. Alsip has become a family name on campus with Tyler's older brother Derek being a member of the CU wrestling program until his graduation in December 2012 and his younger sister, Toria, is a member of the Lady Tiger soccer team. Both arrived in Des Moines Thursday night.

Leavell is a dark horse contender. If you read some message boards from 2009, Kentucky high school wrestling fans said he wouldn't make it in college. They said he was undersized. Well, he was. But hard work and persistence has its rewards, such as earning a wild card in the NAIA East Region two week ago. So far this season, he is 17-9 with five pins and two major decisions.

At 141 pounds, Campbellsville returns the defending NAIA runner-up in Chris Teague (Greenville, S.C.) as well as freshman Brandon Westerman (Atlanta, Ga.)

Teague wrestled most of the season at 149 pounds before dropping down to 141 in a dual loss to Lindsey Wilson College. He was majored in his first 141-pound match this season but responded to sweep through the NAIA East Region before forfeiting to teammate Brandon Westerman in the region final. Last season, Teague would barely speak come nationals week, that is until the van ride home when you couldn't shut him up.
 

This year, he's been a lot different — from last year's stoic "Karate Kid" look to just strolling around and cutting up with his teammates. When asked about it Thursday at Walmart, Teague told me "It's like the guy said last night in the movie, 'I'm on vacation.'" While vacation could mean relaxed without a care in the world, Bruce Willis' John McClain character still managed to defeat his opponent while having fun and helping his teammate do the same in the film – Teague's goal for the week.

Westerman might be the new stoic figure at 141 pounds for Campbellsville, probably just because I haven't had a chance to get to know him yet. A first-year transfer, he enters the tournament ranked 12^th at 141 pounds with a 23-10 record.
 

CU also registered two 149 pounders – freshmen Kyle Terry (Radcliff, Ky.) and Shawn McGhee (Stubenville, Ohio). The two have potential to be characters and competitors in the program for the next three seasons. It's always fun to get to know the freshmen during nationals and watch them grow over four seasons (more on that Sunday). Terry enters the tournament ranked seventh at his weight with a 24-9 record, while McGhee is unranked with a 15-7 record.

The following three wrestlers are CU's three seniors competing this week in their final tournament: Conor Young (157 pounds), Josh Ashbrook (184 pounds) and Allen Scruggs (197 pounds). The three are rooming together on the trip and fighting over who is going to drill with who in practice.

Young, second on CU's all-time wins list, is 25-4 on the year and ranked No. 1 in the nation entering the week. He either holds or is second on nearly every record book category for the Tigers.

Ashbrook is ranked third in the NAIA and holds a 14-6 record entering the tournament. A fifth-year senior, he has battled through injuries or health issues each season, most recently being a heart condition that he thought might end his career early. With medicine and a strict diet, he is hoping to end his Champion of Character career as an All-American and get his name on the wrestling room wall. I think the entire team is cheering for this to happen, as well as possibly many from other schools also.

Scruggs is 20-5 as a senior after finishing runner-up at 184 pounds last season. Prior to last season's final, we told Scruggs, who fears swimming, that he had to go ice skating if he lost the championship bought. He did, and never followed through with the other end of his challenge. Well, I decided to let him off the hook this week, considering all of the ice skating we've had to do to walk from van to building in parking lots across the area. One interesting thing about Scruggs, is that if you hear someone singing at random during the tournament, you now know where its coming from – CU wrestling's resident gospel singer, who gets hyped to R&B.

Well, that's the long, yet abridged introduction of our 10 national qualifiers. It will be fun to see the race for the championship play out over the next two days.

In addition to tournament coverage, CU Sports Information Director Chris Megginson, a Tiger travel companion, will keep fans updated from behind the scenes of the NAIA Wrestling National Tournament with his daily diary.

Complete coverage of Campbellsville University Wrestling from the NAIA Wrestling National Tournament, can be found here.