The Cerritos wrestling season is almost here with the Falcons’ first tournament taking place on Sept. 19 at Mt. San Antonio College.

There seems to be high expectations for this upcoming season from one of Cerritos’ most dominant sports programs.

“I feel it’s the best team since I’ve been here,” head coach Don Garriott said.

This is saying a lot since last year’s team finished the regular season with 32 wins and only 12 losses, which earned it the title of No. 2 in the South Coast Conference.

Highly decorated high school wrestlers such as heavyweight Jose Lopez and Anthony Duarte who both placed No. 4 at nationals, while in high school for their respective weight classes are new to Cerritos and are among those to watch this coming season.

Not only does Cerritos wresting have high hopes for the team season, individual championships are also in the works.

With seven wrestlers going to state last year and many new wrestlers being added this season, individual national contention is likely.

The only real hits the wrestling team has taken is in the loss of a few accomplished sophomores.

Two-time All-Americans Juan Enriquez and California State Champ Mike Koehnlein have left Cerritos College to wrestle out of state.

Still, Cerritos wrestling will have a lot of talented returners including 184 lb Caleb Gerl who placed No. 2 in state and was named the South Coast Conference Athlete of the year.

This year, Gerl said he’ll be taking first and with last year in the books it looks like he just might.