File photo Whitman sophomore 140-pounder Eren Civan returns after going undefeated and winning a state championship as a freshman.

The Vikings (15-2 last year) captured their first county tournament title since 1990 and went on to win their first Class 4A-3A West Region tournament championship. Whitman, in fact, won every tournament it entered last winter except for the state tournament, where it placed ninth.

Whitman also beat Paint Branch, 36-35, to capture the 4A-3A West Region dual-meet championship before falling, 39-30, to eventual champion Calvert in the state semifinals.

"Seven guys who went to states are all back," said Vikings coach Andy Wetzel, the 2003-04 All-Gazette coach of the year. "We're looking to improve on last year's record. The kids were working real hard in the off-season, going to camps, clinics and tournaments. They've been doing the right things to get to the next level."

Sophomore Eren Civan (140 pounds) headlines those returnees. He captured county, regional and state titles en route to a perfect 35-0 record as a freshman. Andrew Robinson (112) took second in the county and region and finished with a 28-7 record. Carl Ehrlich (25-6 record), the team's heavyweight, placed second in the county and first in the region a year ago.

Other key competitors are Will Sharbaugh (103), Brian Flores (119), A.J. Rathz (130), Erol Civan (145), Adam Brooks (152), Colin Beverly (171) and Pat Lazear (215).

Bethesda neighbor Landon is also coming off a strong season that ended disappointingly in the Interstate Athletic Conference tournament. After falling just once in league dual meets, the Bears (13-7 overall) dropped to fourth in what was the most tightly contested IAC tournaments in recent years.

Coach Andy Katz hopes to build on last year's success with a mix of solid veterans, talented newcomers and a healthy Andy Loomis, the team's heavyweight who has had his mat time limited through injuries from the previous two football seasons.

"We're a young team," Katz said. "We have five seniors ... and a mix of freshmen, sophomores and juniors spread across the board. It should be an interesting season. I'm counting on the young guys to step up. I think we should be fairly competitive."

Defending IAC champion Mike Frank (125-130) and runners-up Cale Gosnell (112) and Peter Weiss (125) will once again anchor the team's starting lineup, along with Gurmail Thagad (160) and Alex Rhoads (152).

Senior Craig Arrindell (189), junior Conor Cassidy (189) and freshmen Nick Pohanka (103) and Trey Smith (189-215) will fill the other lineup spots vacated by graduated stalwarts John Greenwald and Austin Sanders.

While Whitman and Landon hope to chart similar courses, Bullis and Bethesda-Chevy Chase hope to regain past glory that each team enjoyed two years ago. The Bulldogs, under second-year coach Andrey Brener, slipped from a 15-0 record to 7-6 and passed their IAC crown to St. Stephen's/St. Agnes.

Bullis, however, did finish the league season strongly, capturing the IAC tournament title by one point over the Saints, who captured the overall title (which is a combination of finishes in both regular-season dual-meet matches and in the tournament).

Tri-captain Sam Brusca (112), who captured one of the team's individual titles at the IAC tournament, returns along with senior captains Kevin Tighe (189-215) and Andrew Rose (140-145-152), who placed second in his weight class a year ago. Also returning is junior Joe Takesuye (135-140), who took fifth at last winter's Maryland Independent Schools Championship.

Looking to bolster the Bullis lineup will be Mike Kariya (152-160) and Matt Danielson (112-119), who served as captains on the Bullis middle-school team.

"Last year, we had a very strong senior class," Brener said. "We don't have stars of that caliber, but the seniors are very close to it. The young kids, Matt and Mike, I'm also very excited about. Anytime a freshman breaks through to the starting lineup, he should be very strong by the time of his junior and senior year."

B-CC saw its win total dip from a high of 11-3 two years ago to last year's 8-5 mark. To reach either mark this season, B-CC coach Bob Bunting will have to replace three of the program's most productive wrestlers in state champion Sonny Nucci and Eric and Chad Jeronimo, who combined for over 300 wins in their distinguished careers. They totaled 85 wins last season, and all three reached the state final.

"Over 300 wins, we'll have to make it up somehow," Bunting said. "Not having three kids like that, it will be tough."

The cupboard is not completely bare, however, with the return of junior Rudy Moures (125) and seniors Pat Genova (160) and heavyweight Andrew McNeill, who are coming off strong campaigns.

Moures captured county and regional titles and finished fifth in the state. The All-Gazette selection compiled a 30-3 record in his first varsity season. McNeill took third place in the county, fourth in the region and had a 20-10 record. Genova finished with an 18-12 mark.

"We're expecting big things from those three guys," Bunting said. "We expect them to do just as good as the other three guys if they work hard. We have that much confidence in them."

The team's other key wrestlers are sophomore Lucas Truscin (103) and seniors Zach Hennighausen (125-130) and Ben Pape (171). The rest of the squad is young.

"We have a lot of young kids in the lineup," Bunting said. "They'll take their lumps this year. We have a good group of JV kids ... who did real well last year."

Churchill, a perennial county powerhouse, enters the season with perhaps its most inexperienced squad in a very long time with the graduation of three-time state champion Danny April (25-6 record), among others.

"It's a major, major rebuilding year," Bulldogs coach Mike Endler said. "We lost 11 seniors. We have a slew of JV kids, who have wrestled well as JV wrestlers, vying for those 11 spots on varsity. They have little to no varsity experience. We have a couple of seniors who have never wrestled varsity before. Hopefully, some of these kids will pull off a Matt Brown."

Brown finished with a 17-13 record in his first varsity campaign as a senior last year. He took fifth at the regional championships.

Senior Andrew Coburn (171-189) and juniors Jon April (125) and Chris Webb (heavyweight) are the team's three returning varsity wrestlers. None of them qualified for regional competition last year.

Expectations have also been lowered somewhat at Walter Johnson, which once again reached the double-digit win mark (11) last year under long-time coach Tom Wheeler. He believes this year's squad will hover around the .500 mark because of another arduous schedule and a lack of experience in the lower weights.

The upper weights, however, are stocked with talent, including Tennessee transfer Aaron Finkhausen (171-189), Mike Donahue (135), Joe Broady (140-145), Zack Finehout (140), Jon Blumberg (160) and Dan Quintana (215). Blumberg went 17-12 a year ago.

Richard Montgomery coach Kevin Menefee labeled this year's squad "the youngest team I've had in a while," with just a handful of varsity wrestlers back in the fold. Fortunately for the Rockets, Menefee said that many of those newcomers bring junior-league experience.

They will be joined by seniors Rob Vettori (140), Kyle Gallagher (189) and Michael Stahley (112), and juniors Josh Rosenthal (125) and Jorge Ban (152). Gallagher (27-10) and Vettori (32-7) placed fifth at last year's regional tournament. Rosenthal compiled a 20-14 record a year ago.