The Lakeland High School wrestling team will send three wrestlers to the Class 3 state tournament.

The Cavs have had a long road to the postseason. After wrestling in a tough Southeastern District as the only Class 3 school, the Cavs were able to take their bumps and bruises here and there to prepare for the postseason. Lakeland competed in the Class 3 Region A championships and placed 10th but was able to send three wrestlers to states with an alternate.

Dakota Joe, Tristan Jolley and Wilbert Doswell will all be wrestling in the Class 3 tournament. Marques Scott is an alternate.

“We qualified about what I expected, so I am pretty pleased with the results,” Coach Nathan Hoffman said. “We were able to get the things accomplished I thought we could.”

Jolley, in particular, is a senior who will be experiencing his first state tournament after being a part of the team for all four years.

“It’s good to see someone who puts in all that hard work over four years and it pays off for them,” Hoffman said.

Doswell competed in the state tournament last year and can possibly make a strong run at placing for the Cavs. Win or place, good things can happen for the Cavs if they continue to raise their level of execution.

“We are preparing and going over some techniques,” Hoffman said. “You scale things back a bit, but you still want to make sure you’re mentally prepared.”

Regardless of the outcome in the state tournament, Hoffman has noticed the growth from his team as a whole from the beginning of the season until now. Lakeland has an exciting core coming back next year with three of the four qualifiers and alternates returning next year.

The Class 4 State Tournament will be held Feb. 15-16 at the Salem Civic Center in Salem.