Coming into this season, the Auburn Trojan wrestling squad was chock-full of talented wrestlers.

Picked the second best 3A team in the state by washingtonwrestlingreport.net’s preseason ranking, the expectation for Troy wrestling is high.

For the team’s top heavyweights, 220-pound senior Mario Luevano and 285-pound senior Jacob Apodaca, the bar is especially high.

Last season Apodaca finished fifth at Mat Classic in 4A at 285.

For Luevano, last year’s postseason was a bit more rocky.

A sure bet to move on to Mat Classic out of the regional tourney, Luevano suffered a high sprain during a match, ending his season shy of the state championships.

“It felt pretty bad,” he said. “At the time it was hard to deal with. I could’t deal with it, I was bawling. I had to regain myself. I just spent a lot of time by myself getting it together.”

Coming up just short of the state meet, Luevano said, fueled him during the offseason.

“I set the goal of being a hard worker and a state champ, one of the best wrestlers there,” Luevano said.

Apodaca’s goal is just as lofty.

“I want to be a state champ and beat some big-time names,” Apodaca said. “Like Tate Orndorff [top-ranked grappler from University].”

Apodaca and Luevano say their daily workouts against each other aid them in their quests.

“We’re wrestling partners, so we always wrestle against each other,” Luevano said. “He’s good, so it’s hard to beat Jacob. But it makes us better.”

“Apart from just being strong, period, he’s got good hips,” Luevano said. “He’s good at defending and takedowns. He’s good at bottom, too, and can just slip out. You won’t even be expecting it, and he’ll come at you.”

“Mario scrambles a lot better than most heavyweights,” Apodaca added. “He keeps really good head position and gets out from the bottom just like that.”

Both wrestlers have benefitted and grown from challenging each other daily in the Trojan wrestling room, said Auburn coach Dennis Herren.

“We knew they would be both be horses this year but even I could not have predicted what good scramblers they would become,” Herren said. “They both simply refuse to concede points to opponents. Mario dominates both the tie up and the mat game. He has terrific balance and has a powerful center of gravity. “Jacob puts unrelenting pressure on his opponent and controls the tempo whistle to whistle.

Herren said he’s also impressed by the duos work ethic.

“Usually big guys are known for gasping and walking during team sprints,” he said. T”hese two are near the front of the pack during the most painstaking moments of team conditioning. They push one another day in and day out. As a result they have the ability to turn it up in double and triple overtime and they both step on the mat with the special confidence of the cardiovascular elite.

With the postseason looming just a couple weeks from now, Luevano and Apodaca are firmly in control of their own destiny.

Luevano is ranked No. 5 in the state 3A at 220 and has an 18-5 record to date.

“I’ve got a few more losses than I like, I didn’t expect to have as many coming in,” Luevano said. “I didn’t expect to lose to Jacob in the first tourney.”

For Apodaca, it’s a second-place 3A ranking behind Glacier Peak’s Mosese Fifita.

In addition to the duo’s personal goals, both are committed to helping Auburn secure a place on the podium in the team competition at Mat Classic XXVII.

“We want to be one of the best teams in state,” Luevano said. “When we found out we were ranked, we pushed even harder to get to the very top. Three is good, but we want to get to the top.”

Apodaca agreed:

“We want to be league champions, regional champions and state champions,” Apodaca said.

And both are committed to bringing along the younger underclassmen wrestlers.

“They bring a lot of pressure on themselves, so I just get them to calm down and not worry and just wrestle how you wrestle,” Apodaca said. “I just talk to them like that. When you’re wrestling them, instead of just completely beating the crap out of them, you try to help them out, show them some moves, stuff like that.”

“We show them how to improve on what they’re doing,” Luevano said.

The Washington State Mat Classic XXVII is Feb. 20-21 at the Tacoma Dome.