The Palo Alto High School wrestling team looks to thrive this season after being moving down from the De Anza division to the El Camino division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

“We were placed in the lower division this season and one of our team goals is to win the division,” coach Jonathan Kessler said.

 Last year, the 0-6 season ended with six of the team’s wrestlers competing at the Central Coast Section championships. The team finished with a combined record of 14-9 during the two days at the competition, according to Kessler. 

With nearly 2o returning team members and fresh talent, this year the team is optimistic, according to Kessler.

“We return 18 wrestlers from last year, so that’s huge after the way we started last season,” Kessler said. “Currently we have 40 wrestlers on the roster.” 

The wrestling program hopes that with this surge of new members on the team, the team can start to improve its record from last year and dominate in a lower league.

“As a team, we hope to return to the De Anza division and for myself, I expect to win CCS and place at the state tournament,” senior Sara Aguilar said.

Some athletes to look out for this season include Aguilar, senior Seth Goyal, junior Calvin Grewel, sophomores Callum Day Ham, Andrew Wang and Aidan Gans. 

The Vikings’ first league competition will be on Saturday at the Peninsula Invitational at Half Moon Bay High School.