Advance and survive.

That’s the name of the game at this point of the wrestling season and the message Freedom’s wrestlers are bringing with them into this weekend’s District 11 3A wrestling tournament at Liberty’s Memorial Gymnasium.

After an impressive dual meet season, the Patriots are now hoping some of that success can spill over to the first weekend of the individual postseason.

“Realistically, I think we can have around five kids advance,” said head coach Dante Terenzio. “We have quite a few guys that will be battling for those third through fifth place spots.”

Freedom will have a full contingent of wrestlers competing this week with CJ Horvath (120) and Connor Bevan (152) returning as the lone Patriot medalists from a year ago.

Both wrestlers finished fourth last year at districts and look to improve, as the top five wrestlers from each class advance. Terenzio should see most of his roster battling for one of the top five finishes, which should pave the way for an exciting weekend for the team.

“Postseason wrestling is survival of the fittest; it’s a war,” said Terenzio. “Each individual’s goal is to prolong the season. If you take a loss, you got to have a short term memory and bounce back quickly in the consolations.

“We’ve been getting healthy and really focusing on drilling the things that work for us with the time off. Repetition is always important, but so is adding a few new things to your arsenal. The little things we are adding will help us score more points.”

The complete Freedom lineup for this weekend are below.

106 - Jomar Medina

113 - Evan Moretz

120 - CJ Horvath

126 - Reinaldo Lebron

132 - Cameron Wickemeyer

138 - Joey Bodnar

145 - Chris Jurado

152 - Connor Bevan

160 - Noah MacIlroy

172 - Jared Karabinus

189 - Anthony Lyden

215 - Jugraj Nagra

285 - Nick Farrel