The Helias Crusaders believe they've done in the work.
Now they're looking to get the rewards as the Crusaders will have 10 wrestlers competing today in the Class 2 state wrestling championships at Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence.
"For us, if we're going to win it, we're going to win it with numbers," Helias coach Weston Keleher said. "We have the potential to have a lot of placers."
Even without wrestling a match, the Crusaders enter the championships atop the leaderboard with 20 team points.
In the new format, only 12 wrestlers have qualified in each weight class instead of the normal 16 to allow the tournament to end in one day. Helias had five individual sectional champions who receive a first-round bye worth four points each.
"We've got 20 points already, that's obviously an advantage," Keleher said.
But the downside is the five will be wrestling in the quarterfinals against an opponent with one state match under his belt earlier in the day.
"I think you can look at it both ways, there are positives and negatives," Keleher said. "Points wise, this is best, but as coaches, we need to make sure we're ready for that first match in the quarterfinals."
The Crusaders found out during the season they dropped from Class 3 to Class 2. Helias believes its schedule, competing against bigger schools throughout the regular season, has prepared it for state.
"100 percent, we did that for a reason," Keleher said. "We were up in the air in what class we would be, but we knew it was important to wrestle some of the bigger schools and some of the better competition in the state.
"Our administration allowed us to travel, we thank them for that, because there are some schools that couldn't travel out of their immediate area. But we could and that helped us prepare the best we could for state."
The schedule included a trip to St. Louis, where the Crusaders were required to wrestle in masks.
"If you want to see tough competition, you do what you need to do," Keleher said.
The Crusaders believe the brackets favor some deep runs for their qualifiers.
"Love 'em," Keleher said. "I think we can get quite a few guys into the semifinals and then see what happens from there."
The five sectional champions include:
Gage Lock (29-9), a junior at 106 pounds.
Carter Prenger (29-8), a sophomore at 113. Prenger was a qualifier at 106 last year, going 2-2.
Jack Lage (31-0), a junior at 120. Lage finished third last year at 120.
Lage, who missed the postseason as a freshman with a broken collarbone, had the goal of finishing an undefeated state champion this season.
"At this point, he can get rid of the first part," Keleher said. "He's done the work, if he's going be a state champ, he's going to be an undefeated state champ. He's done the hard part, now it's time to finish it."
Wyatt Forck (30-11), a junior at 145.
Nikolai Careaga, a senior at 152. Careaga qualified at 152 last year, finishing 0-2.
Helias' other qualifiers include:
Jacob Schrimpf (32-7), a junior at 132.
Carson Hayes (30-10), a sophomore at 138.
Alex Tesreau (27-10), a senior at 160.
Tanner Nappier (24-15), a junior at 195.
Michael Sanner (12-16), a junior at 285.
Helias, who finished 11th in Class 3 last year, believes it is in a position to win its first team title since 2003.
"If we're going to win it, it's going to be with depth, just like the old days," Keleher said. "In the past, there were a lot of years that there was one individual champ when they won the title, but there were eight or nine state medalists."
Keleher wants the Crusaders to shut out any distractions and just focus on one match at a time.
"Who cares about the record of the guy you're wrestling? It's the state tournament, everybody is going to be good," he said. "We're prepared for this as best we could."
Keleher said everybody is healthy and practices have been strong heading into the tournament.
"We've staggered tougher and lighter practices to try to get us prepared the best," he said.
The tournament wraps up a memorable season that with COVID-19 questions, some thought might not finish with the championships.
"My mindset wasn't optimistic or pessimistic, it was just to control what you can control," Keleher said. "We had a schedule through February, so we wrestled through February. The schedule said wait two weeks after districts for sectional, so that's what we did. Then wait close to two more weeks for state, so that's what we did.
"We did what we were told, we didn't worry about any what ifs? We just focused on the next thing on the schedule."
Pleasant Hill has four sectional champions, so it starts the day with 16 points. Other teams figuring to contend for team honors include Seneca, Excelsior Springs and defending champion Monett.
Action begins at 9:30 a.m., with the quarterfinals slated for an 11 a.m. start. The semifinals start at 2:45 p.m., with the championship matches to begin at 6:30 p.m.