The Westside wrestling team has its sights set on winning the state championship this year.

The Wolves are off to a great start - they're coming off two consecutive tournament wins and a monster dual win against Plano.

“It (this season) is going better than expected. The two tournaments we have been in, we’ve won. This is only our second dual. We had a dual against Plano last week and we beat them. The guys are wrestling above and beyond right now,” coach Ron Baker said.

Baker, who began the Westside wrestling program eight years ago, has built a solid program and has produced state ranked wrestlers.

“I have six guys that I think can carry us to state. My 171(-pounder), James Hazzard got third in state last year," Baker said. "My 160, Trent Murrell and my heavy weight, J.T. Woodard are two guys that are really good. Those guys I can pretty much count on every match. They will come out with a win or a tough one-point match.”

Hazzard and Murrell both lost last weekend at the Rockwall Invitational but had tough matches.

“Trent (Murrell) lost to a nationally ranked person by one-point and James (Hazzard) lost by one-point to the guy who beat him at state last year," Baker said. "James (Hazzard) wrestles him again next week, so it’s going to be (for) revenge.”

The Wolves travel to Tulsa, Okla. next weekend for the Midwest Nationals and what Baker calls “another good Oklahoma tournament.”  In their strive to improve, Baker and the Wolves travel and compete against teams not from the Houston area.

“I said we need to go out and the find better competition to get better and better. Not saying that the competition here (Houston) isn’t good, because all the Katy and Klein schools are good. I’m just going to try and have the roughest schedule possible that I can have because I want them to get better. That way, when they get to state, they’ve seen the top competition.”

Westside made it to the state tournament last year and placed wrestlers, but didn’t win it as a team.

“Cinco Ranch won state last year. We were glad but we were mad," Baker said. "We were glad because a Division II finally won but we were mad because it should have been us. So we have a Cinco Ranch state championship wrestling shirt in our locker room hanging on the wall for a little motivation.”

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