The Wright City wresting program has seen a significant increase in numbers as they head into their season, with nearly 10 new additions.

“Most of them are young, so we’re getting some young kids out finally and we hope to keep them for the years and help them get better, so I’m very excited about that,” Head Coach Fred Ross said.

The girls have seen a slight decrease in num- bers, with a team total of nine. However, three of them are returning state qualifiers.

“The girls’ numbers are down a little bit, but the quality is pretty good, so I’m pleased about that,” Ross said.

Wright City will have a mixture of experienced wrestlers and athletes that are new to the sport.

“One of the girls has experience and I think we have two boys with experience, so we’re starting from scratch with a bunch of them but they’ve been pretty athletic and most of them play football,” Ross said.

Overall, the Wildcats will return three state qualifiers, Sadie Sehnert, Kali Jensen and Caelyn Hanff. Jensen, who is only a junior, has qualified for state the past two years and earned a fourth-place finish her freshman year. Last year, she finished with 35 wins. Sehnert, who is also a junior, qualified for state for the first time last season. She ended the year with 37 victories.

The girls also return senior Caelyn Hanff. As a sophomore Hanff placed third at the Class 1 state tournament.

Lauren Ritter is also back with some experience, along with Jolee Lockhart and Liliana Wiedemeier.

Ross noted the girls will be pretty bunched together in weight classes, but he is hoping he can fill out eight or nine weight classes. He expects the boys to fill every weight class from 125 or 130 pounds and on up.

The boys did not have any state qualifiers last year, but they return Joseph Beitel and Quincy Rice, two wrestlers that were one win shy from advancing to the state tournament. Senior Lane Graves is also expected to have a breakout season after he won one match and lost two at districts.

Graves was one of the few Wildcats to mainly wrestle at the varsity level.

Ross also named Xavier Stufflebean and Gavin McCord as two wrestlers that have some varsity experience.

“We got those guys with some experience and we expect them to step up,” Ross said. “Those kids that lost those blood rounds, we hope we can get them
through.”

With many young wrestlers, especially on the boys side, the team has been focusing on fundamentals and getting in wrestling shape.

“Football and softball don’t get you in wrestling shape, so that’s been our focus,” Ross said. “We’re doing a lot of body weight stuff, conditioning, dislocation wrestling, terminology and workouts.”

Overall, Ross wants to see an increase in improvement from day one to the end of the season.

“Like I said, the majority of them are freshmen so we’re excited about that and we got a couple of older kids that I think will do well, but we just want to get better throughout the season,” Ross said.

Both teams will begin their season with a home tournament. The girls wrestling team will have their first tournament on Nov. 23, while the boys will start on Dec. 5.