Coach: Creighton Laughary (16th year with program, 11th year as head coach)

Last season: Second in league, second at KingCo tournament, ending five-year run as league champs.

“It was something we thought we had in the bag, and then it kind of fell through at the end,” said senior Nic Meinzinger-Richards.

“We want to obviously redeem ourselves,” said senior Jace Chen, “and we’re going to work to become even better than we were before.”

Strengths: “Midweights for the most part,” Meinzinger-Richards said. “That’s where a lot of our returners are on the team.”

Needs to improve: Depth and experience.

“It’s a young team. Unlike last year and the year before and every year before that, we don’t have anyone coming back with state experience,” Laughary said. “This year, we have some kids that want to work really hard. The work ethic is going to be there, and it’s going to need to be there because we have a lot of work to do.”

Laughary said the program has endured a downward trend in numbers the last few years. Though the number of girls participating has slowly risen. Mercer Island has five girls wrestling this season, and may possibly add more.

“We do have some of the highest participation among KingCo teams with just five [girls], which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s five more than most schools,” he said.

Goals: “I think the major team goal for us is that we hope everybody will stay uninjured this year so that we don’t have to forfeit weights [at matches],” Meinzinger-Richards said. “That is a major reason why we’ve lost several matches in the past.”

“Our main goal is just about personal improvement; how we improve as a person and a wrestler,” Isabelle Castleman said.

Key athletes: Nic Meinzinger-Richards, Brian Wen, Finn Childress, Jonah Andrew, Malachai Morgan, Isabelle Castleman, Jace Chen.

Meet to watch: Bellevue, Jan. 7. Bellevue won its meet with Mercer Island last season to clinch the league title.

“It was really close, it came down to a few points,” Castleman said. “We had a couple of weight classes that we had to forfeit, so it was a real tough loss to lose that way. But we’re going to try and redeem it this year.”