The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk wrestling team is on the mat for the first time in the new season tonight when they travel to Wapello for a quadrangular meet against Eddyville-Blakesburg, English Valleys and the home standing Indians.

The Golden Hawks are coming off of a season where they finished 11-12 overall. The Hawks were 7-4 in the River Valley Conference, taking fourth place in the dual season. They finished seventh at the RVC tournament at Goose Lake and crowned two individual champions.

The Golden Hawks lost six wrestlers to graduation including multi time conference champion and state meet qualifiers Visouth Peterschmidt and Duncan McCain. Both Peterschmidt and McCain finished with more than 100 career wins with McCain setting the school record at 163. Mid-Prairie will also be without former state runner-up Levi Duwa who moved on through graduation.

The Golden Hawks bring back experience in 126lb senior Eli Steckly, 152lb juniors David Murray and Miles Burrows, 182lb sophomore Cory Allen, and 220lb sophomores Isaac Boucher and Colton Allen.

Eddyville-Blakesburg finished last year with a 32-3 overall dual record. The Rockets sent four wrestlers to the state meet a year ago including Walker Sage at 120lbs, Alex Hanna at 132, Dakota Boyer at 145 and Austin Angle at 182. Three of the four return with Angle moving on through graduation. The Rockets have three ranked wrestlers in the preseason class 2A poll from thepredicament.com including Hanna seventh at 132lbs, Walker fourth at 138lbs and Boyer seventh at 152lbs. In last year’s meeting Eddyville-Blakesburg beat Mid-Prairie 51-27.

English Valleys finished last year with a 13-18 overall record. The Bears sent senior Zach Axmear to the state meet a year ago at 152lbs where he took home the class 1A state championship. Last year the Golden Hawks beat the Bears at this event 54-27.

Wapello finished last year with a 7-11 overall record. The Indians sent three wrestlers to the state meet a year ago including seniors Devon Meeker at 113lbs and Rogan Pforts at 160lbs, along with freshman Daniel Meeker at 106lbs. The Indians have one ranked wrestler in their lineup with Daniel Meeker ranked No. 3 in class 1A at 120lbs. Last year Wapello beat Mid-Prairie 45-36.

Action begins tonight at 6p.m. at Wapello High School.