The NCAA postseason goes through Minot as the Beavers and Visit Minot host the NCAA Super Region V Tournament this weekend at the All-Seasons Arena at the North Dakota State Fairgrounds.

The Minot State men’s wrestling team will be joined by 10 other teams for the single-day tournament with berths to the NCAA National Championships held March 15-16 in Wichita, Kansas at stake for the top 3 finishers in each weight class.

Action begins at 10 a.m. this Saturday – doors open at 9 a.m. – and the Championship round with first-place, third-place, and fifth-place matches is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.

Six of the 11 teams competing come in ranked nationally by the NWCA, ensuring that the action on the mats will be of the highest quality as Augustana, NSIC regular-season champion St. Cloud State, and Parkside (Wis.) are ranked 3rd, 4th, and 5th in the nation, respectively.

The University of Mary is ranked No. 12, former NSIC foe Upper Iowa, now a member of the GLVC but still part of Region V for wrestling, is No. 16, and Northern State is No. 17.

Joining those nationally ranked teams on the mats are host Minot State, Southwest Minnesota State, Minnesota State, Mankato, Sioux Falls, and Minnesota State Moorhead.

As for the Beavers themselves, two Minot State grapplers head into this weekend nationally ranked by the NWCA, Brendan Barnes who is No. 9 in the nation at 165 pounds, and former All-American Jake Swirple who is ranked No. 8 at 285 pounds.

Based on those national rankings, Barnes (23-4 overall) heads into the weekend the third-highest 165-pounder slated to compete at the Super Region V tournament behind No. 3 ranked Chase Luensman of Upper Iowa and No. 8 Tyler Wagener of Augustana.

As for Swirple (16-2), he is the second-highest ranked heavyweight in the Region V field behind only No. 7 ranked Luke Tweeton of Mary. Swirple and Tweeton have split their two meetings on the mat this season with each wrestler winning an overtime tie-breaker.

Also scheduled to compete this weekend for the Beavers are Logen Fischer (12-14) at 125 pounds, Wayne Joint (21-4) at 133 pounds, Ethan Wonser (8-7) at 141 pounds, Ryan Hrcka (17-5) at 149 pounds, Kelby Armstrong (17-6) at 157 pounds, Brody Mohr (3-8) at 174 pounds, Cayden White (15-13) at 184 pounds, and Cannon Potts (16-10) at 197 pounds.