By Ray Hamill — The H-DNL wrestling championships will take place this Saturday at Arcata High, with league frontrunners Del Norte and Fortuna expected to compete for the team title.

The host school, however, will be hoping to make some noise as well, with at least four Tigers expected to compete for an individual title.

Heavyweight Maximus Rice, who recently signed a letter of intent to play football at Azusa Pacific in the fall, is unbeaten on the North Coast this season and will be the No. 1 seed in his bracket for the league meet.

Arcata’s Marley Harris, Josh Hannan and Tyrell Clausen each also will be among the top seeds in their brackets and expected to challenge for a title before going on to next week’s prestigious North Coast Section meet.

The problem for the Tigers is depth, with 14 wrestlers on this year’s squad, many of them competing in the same lower weights.

“Our team is really young,” Arcata head coach Eric Mikolai said.

For those wrestlers who have stuck with it, however, the hard work is beginning to pay off.

“For the 14 kids that are still on the team, they’re willing to put the work in,” MIkolai added. “Hats off to them for sticking it out.”