EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern Wrestling has announced that tickets for the 48th annual Midlands Championships to be held Dec. 29-30 in Welsh-Ryan Arena are now available for purchase. The tournament's ability to attract the top teams and individuals in college wrestling to the field continues in 2010 with the addition of future Big Ten Conference member Nebraska and Big 12 power Oklahoma. 

Fans can download and complete the ticket reservation form linked on NUsports.com or call the Northwestern ticket office at 888-GO-PURPLE to secure their seats. 

Midlands ticket order form 

With a new head coach, three returning NCAA qualifiers in the lineup and the Big Ten Championships coming to Evanston in March, the 2010-11 season is set up to be one of the most memorable campaigns in recent history for Northwestern. 

Adding to the excitement of this season is the pre-conference tradition that is the Midlands Championships, which draws top talent from the Midwest, both coasts and Divisions I, II and III. 

"Midlands continues to be the premier holiday tournament in the country," said first-year head coach Drew Pariano. "Our team is extremely excited about the prospect of being able to win both an individual Midlands championship and a Big Ten championship on their home mats this season. We are anxious to get this season started." 

The addition of Oklahoma (No. 7) and Nebraska (No. 24) lifts the number of current top-25 programs in this year's Midlands field to 12. Among them are No. 5 Wisconsin, No. 8 Central Michigan, No. 9 Illinois, No. 12 Missouri, two teams tied at No. 16 (Northwestern and Pittsburgh) and No. 19 Lehigh. 

"We've worked hard to keep the talent level at Midlands as high as possible and to continually incorporate the teams and wrestlers that fans want to see," Pariano said. "We also take pride in hosting a professionally run tournament that teams want to be part of, which is why we are able to so quickly fill our field."

Other notable attendees this season include all four Division I wrestling programs in the state of California: UC Bakersfield, Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly and Stanford. Top NAIA program Cal Baptist will also be making a return trip to Evanston this December. 
In 2009, the Midlands Championships once again turned out to provide wrestling fans a great preview of the NCAA Championships in Omaha 10 weeks later. Seven of the 10 NCAA champions in 2010 competed at last year's Midlands, including five who claimed titles at both events. 

In all, more than 40 percent of the 80 NCAA All-Americans in 2010 were in the field at 2009 Midlands Championships. 

Preseason rankings from WIN Magazine were cited in this release.  

Midlands ticket order form