With many UW
students heading inside to warm up from the blistering winter cold, the
ninth-ranked Wisconsin wrestling team is off to the bright lights of Las Vegas
to take part in the 26th annual Cliff Keen Invite.

More than 40 teams will take part in the two-day tournament
to be held in the Las Vegas Convention Center. The field includes 12 teams
ranked in the top 25, as well as four other Big Ten teams including Illinois,
Michigan, Ohio State and Purdue.

Head coach Barry Davis knows this will be another chance for
his team to see where they stand against the rest of the pack.

"There's going to be five of the top 10 teams in the country
that'll be there, so we'll kind of see a little bit more where we're really at,
where we stand overall in the country," Davis said in a press conference
Monday. "And it'll be a good chance for our guys to get some good matches in
against some highly ranked guys, and so we'll see where we stand overall as a
team, as well as individual-wise. It'll be a good test for us."

The Badgers are coming off a big weekend two weeks ago when
they defeated then-No. 8 Cornell 21-18. Wisconsin was down 15-18 heading into
the final match of the night at 197 pounds. Junior Dallas Herbst registered a pin
in the last dual of the night to give UW the match and the upset win.

Last year in Las Vegas, the cardinal and white appeared at
the invite and took fifth out of 47 teams. The Badgers were led by third-place
finishes from Craig Henning at 157 pounds and Kyle Ruschell at 141 pounds.
Herbst also finished fifth at 197 pounds, while senior Matt Maciag placed
seventh at 174 pounds at last year’s invite.

The highlight of the tournament will be in the 157-pound weight
class, where the second-ranked Henning could meet up with either top-ranked
Gregor Gillespie from Edinboro or No. 3 Mike Poeta from Illinois. Poeta is
coming off a match where he pinned Henning a little more than a week ago at the
National Wrestling Coaches Association All-Star Classic.

"Henning was off to a good start right away until he got
pinned last week," Davis said. "But I think it was a little bit of a wake-up
call for him. … I think he thinks he can turn it on and turn it off when he has
to, and it's not the way you should look at things. You've got to prepare all
year long, and I think he thinks, Well, I took second last year, I'll be in the
finals again this year."

While this weekend will be a great chance for Henning to get
back to his winning ways, it will also be a good tune-up for an early-season
Big Ten match at Ohio State in 10 days. As it often is, the Big Ten is one of
the premier wrestling conferences in the nation this season.

"It's as tough as ever, I think," Davis said. "We're No.
[9] in the country, but No. 6 overall in the Big Ten, so that tells you a
little bit about Big Ten wrestling. But it's a physical conference, a very deep
conference. I think you've got to be ready every time you step on the mat. So
it's not going to be easy. We've got to take it one match at a time and
continue to develop our skills."