The one word that will define this years Gator’s wrestling team: expectations.

With a returning national champion in Pacifico Garcia and a lineup full of transfers and upperclassman with college wrestling experience, Gator’s coach, Lars Jensen, said he expects his wrestlers to go into every match with that same fire.

“We have some high goals this year,” Jensen, who’s is in his 23rd season as head coach, said. “We have a much better team than we did last year. We have solid guys at every weight class, so we expect to place in the top three of the (Western) conference and the top ten in the nation this year.”

In a preseason poll the SF State wrestling team was ranked 18th in the nation by the NCAA Division II Wrestling Coaches Association. However, Jensen said the ranking “doesn’t mean a whole lot.”

Teams are ranked by how many points they received in the previous year’s national championships. Since only Garcia is returning with any experience at that level, the Gator’s were ranked lower than usual.

However, Gator’s assistant coach Joey Bareng said that opposing teams should not overlook them.
“It’s kind of an undercover lineup,” Bareng said. “(We’re) deeper because we have more guys, stronger guys, filling in those holes, as opposed to last year when we had a bunch of freshman starting.”

The Gator’s first match will be on Nov. 19 at the Southern Oregon Open, followed by a home meet against Stanford on Nov. 22.