By Ray Hamill — Local fans will get an opportunity to check out this year’s College of the Redwoods men’s wrestling team later this week.

On Friday evening, the Corsairs will host their annual preseason Cardinal versus Gold Scrimmage at the CR gymnasium.

The action gets under way at 5:30 p.m. and is open to the public free of charge.

And head coach Brandon Benvenuti is excited about this year’s team as he gets set for his second year in charge of the program.

“They have showed up and since day one they’ve been working hard,” Benvenuti said of his grapplers. “They’re a pretty resilient group It seems like they’ve got their heart in the right place, they’re focused and eager for the season.”

This year’s roster features 15 wrestlers, including five back from last year’s team, which was the first to compete on the mats for the local community college in 40 years.

The returners include Dakota Sanders, Omar Green, Forest Carlson, Sergio Ramirez Perez and Kenji Jimenez.

The 2024 roster also includes some wrestlers from the H-DNL, including the Eureka trio of Dylan McAllister, Paul Walker and Jesus Ruben Gutierrez, as well as Del Norte’s Reynaldo Martinez.

After an impressive debut campaign with the reinstated program a year ago, Benvenuti is hoping for more of the same this season.

“We have the same goals,” he said. “We always want to compete, show up, work hard and take care of things in the classroom. If we take care of those things, winning and losing takes care of itself.”

In addition to Friday’s scrimmage, the Corsairs will host four other events this fall, including dual meets against Sierra (Oct. 2), Sac City (Oct. 25) and Santa Rosa (Nov. 5), as well as a tournament on Oct. 26.

This year Benvenuti will be joined by assistant coaches Benn Rieder and Isaac Weaver, each of whose influence is already being felt.

“They have been doing an outstanding job and contributing to the team and helping to build a great team culture,” the head coach said.