Dec. 4—MITCHELL — The Mitchell High School boys and girls wrestling teams hit the mats on Friday with a sharper edge and a clearer purpose, as both squads look to build on last year’s strides under third-year head coach Baker Haar.With returning experience, growing depth, and a coaching staff’s intent on raising the program’s ceiling, the Kernels enter the new season determined to turn potential into results.”These last two years have been kind of the motive of improving and competing, and I think we’re at the point now where we’re going to continue to do that,” said Mitchell head coach Baker Haar. “We should be able to take the next step on seeing the progress that we have been making the last two years pay off, as far as placing at the end of the year and having some more dual-match wins.”Mitchell opens the season with both boys and girls triangulars on Friday, Dec. 5 against Tea Area and Chamberlain in Tea.After graduating only three senior boys between both squads, Mitchell brings back a core group of wrestlers who gained valuable varsity matches a season ago. The Kernel boys were 3-13 in dual meets, placed 19th out of 29 teams in the Class A state wrestling tournament last year and are returning three state medalists in Blaze Sevigny, Noah Bennett and Rocky Clark.Clark, the junior 285-pounder, was Mitchell’s top-seeded wrestler at the state meet. Clark was the Region 3A runner-up last year and placed fourth in the 2024 state tourney at the heavyweight class. Clark owned a 32-10 record as a sophomore, which earned him the No. 3 seed and reached the third-place state match for the second-straight year.Sevigny, the sophomore wrestler at 106 pounds, finished in eighth place at the state tourney with a 25-20 record last year as a freshman, while Bennett placed seventh at the 120-pound division as a freshman and had an overall record of 29-15.For the Kernel girls, they placed 22nd out of 53 programs at the state wrestling tournament last season and are returning a trio of senior place-winners in Frankie Kranz, Danny Borja and Taylor DeJong.Kranz, the 120-pounder, boasted an overall record of 32-9 a season ago on her way to a sixth-place finish at the state tourney as a junior. DeJong, the 165-pounder, finished in sixth place with a 26-15 record in her junior season, while Borja placed seventh at the 126-pound division as a junior and had an overall record of 14-7.With both squads’ experienced wrestlers and adding new depth across multiple weight classes, Haar believes they are positioned to take noticeable strides as competition ramps up. He said the biggest difference between this year’s group and the one he inherited two seasons ago is confidence. Many of the wrestlers who were learning on the fly the past two years now arrive with valuable skills and a better understanding of what it takes to win at the high school level.That foundation was set largely during the offseason. Several returning wrestlers competed in team camps and tournaments over the summer, giving them exposure to tougher opponents and different wrestling styles. Haar believes those extra reps could translate into stronger openings to the season.”Both groups went to team camps to try and get more mat time and learn from Division I wrestlers to put that into practice right away as we got going,” Haar said. “So, that was kind of the thing, just finding the mat at any time over the course of the offseason. We also had a couple of kids wrestle in some big tournaments through the summer, which will be a huge boost as we get started.”As the season opens on Friday, the Kernels appear poised for a meaningful leap. Haar said he wants to see some early success over the first competitions of the season to get the ball rolling for both squads from the jump.”I want to see us be able to compete, and although conditioning is an ongoing thing, we want to see some lungs getting through six-minute matches with good technique,” Haar said. “We can go fast, we can go hard, but if we don’t have the tools and technique to back it up, then sometimes we’re going to fall short. I am just trying to see a good, solid base at the beginning that we can build on and this weekend will be a good measuring stick for what we need moving forward.”