NCAA Championships Central | Photos | Watch: Coach Borrelli Interview

ST. LOUIS - The first round of the 2012 NCAA Wrestling Championships is less than 24 hours away.

Central Michigan's seven-wrestler contingent arrived in St. Louis Tuesday night and made its first appearance at the Scottrade Center Wednesday afternoon. The Chippewas worked out for about 90 minutes before returning to the team's headquarters.

"I think we're well-prepared," said CMU head coach Tom Borrelli. "We should be loose and relaxed. I don't think there is a whole lot of pressure on us this year. We've got a young group of guys here, and they should be relaxed and ready to wrestle."

Four of the seven Chippewas in St. Louis are making their first trip to the national tournament, but none were in the lineup when the tournament was last held in St. Louis in 2009. Among the Chippewas at the tournament are two true freshmen, Zach Horan and Mike Ottinger, who are the first true freshman teammates in school history to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

"As a coach, you just try to calm those guys down and tell them it's just another tournament," Borrelli said. "You try not to make it too big of a deal. A lot of those guys have wrestled in high-pressure tournaments in the past, at junior nationals and in their state tournaments, so the message you try to get across is that this is just another tournament."

The first round of competition begins at noon Eastern Time on Thursday. ESPN3.com will stream both the afternoon and evening sessions of competition on Thursday.

The official CMU wrestling Facebook and Twitter pages will be updated continuously throughout the tournament, and complete recaps and interviews will be posted on CMUChippewas.com following each session of competition.