Coming off a winless season, the wrestling team enters its upcoming season optimistic about its rising talent.

“I feel pretty confident this year compared to last year in my and my team’s ability to perform well at tournaments,” Patrick Halkett ’14 said. “While our team is relatively young this year, comprised of mostly freshmen and sophomores, I think they all have a good attitude about wrestling and I think they will learn a lot this year.”

Last year’s team sent five wrestlers to CIF despite their winless record, three of whom are returning. Jake Bracken ’14, Halkett, and Ryan Ruiz ’16 provide the playoff experience necessary for the team to improve on last season’s campaign.

“During the offseason, we practiced three times a week and went to some tournaments on the weekends,” Ruiz said. “Our team goals are to have an overall strong season and send more kids to CIF. I definitely think that we will do well as a team this year, partly because our team is larger than last year.”

Ruiz expects Bracken and Jake Adler ’17 to have strong years.

“My individual goals for this season are for the short term to get better as a wrestler, and in the long run I have set a goal for myself to make the State wrestling tournament,” Bracken said. “There are a few other things that I would like to accomplish, but that has been my goal since I was a freshman. We have worked pretty hard this offseason and I’m excited to see what we can do. I am hopeful that we can get a few wins this year in duals.”

The team will start their season with the Turkey Duals at Birmingham High School on Nov. 30, followed by the Newberry Park Individuals at Newberry Park High School Dec. 7.

The team’s first home meet is the Bishop Amat Dual match Dec. 11 at 6 p.m.

Their second, and last, home dual isn’t until Jan. 8 when the Wolverines will face off with Mission League rival Chaminade. The team was 0-4 in League play last season.