After the majority of men’s wrestlers graduated last year, the team is now in the process of rebuilding their program this season.

“We lost some guys since they graduated, but everyone is wrestling their hardest and putting everything they got out on the mat. We have some pretty good people that are starting to apply themselves and get more serious about this sport and it shows in the way they work,” Christian  Cornes said.

Because Whitney’s wrestling team is smaller this year it has been harder to win matches against other teams like Rocklin and Bella Vista, making their record thus far 0-2.

“Competition is always harder for everyone. There is always someone out there that’s better than you, but it just all depends on how you prepare yourself mentally and physically for what you have to do on the mat,” Cornes said.

In order for wrestlers to be prepared for their first league match against Ponderosa, they need to increase their stamina.

“We do a lot of conditioning to keep us better than the other teams in stamina. We also go over a ton of wrestling moves and usually go live wrestling with our teammates to practice them all,”  Nick Mohler said.

Although the team has fallen in some local matches, they have placed well in larger out-of-town tournaments at Vista Del Lago and San Marin.

“Our JV is doing pretty well but our varsity is small, so we are missing a lot of people, which keeps our stats low. We are doing good in tournaments but on our head-to-head competitions we are having trouble. But individually everyone should do very well,” Coach Dan Parker said.

The wrestling team’s next tournament will be at Aptos Dec. 28 and 29.

by BELLA JACOBS