IRON MOUNTAIN — The Iron Mountain wrestling team will begin the season with a good core of returning wrestlers.

Head coach Cory McLaren’s squad won last season’s Mid-Peninsula Conference meet and took home a fifth consecutive district title.

“Last year was a good year for our program,” he noted.

IM also had four wrestlers advance to individual state finals. Parker Stroud came home with third place at 112 pounds in Division 4. Caleb Burklund, who was also a UP champion at 189 pounds, was a state qualifier. Jon Carrion (152) and Tre Sabotta (140) were state qualifiers as well.

All four are returning letter winners.

Sophomore Isaac Manier will wrestle at 130 pounds.

Graduated from last year’s team are 215-pound Jordan Tramotine, Dow Dawson (130) and team captain and MVP Myles Carey at 160 pounds. The three combined for 53 wins last year, while Dawson placed third at U.P. Finals and first at the Mid-Pen meet.

New wrestlers to the team this season are seniors: heavyweight Josh Pfister, Caslov Tomasevic (171) and Brent Aman (160). Freshman heavyweight Marcus Verette joins Bradon Farragh (171), Evan Haferkorn (119) and Shawn Mcguire (112).

“This year should be an exciting year for us,” McLaren said. “We have good numbers and a lot of talented kids on the team. We also have a nice mix of experienced wrestlers and very hard working newcomers. If we can stay healthy we should be competitive as a team and individually all year.”

IM is still a member of the Mid-Peninsula Conference for various sports, with wrestling being one of them. Other Mid-Pen wrestling schools include Westwood, Gladstone, Negaunee, Gwinn, Ishpeming. Bark River-Harris, who now co-ops with North Central for wrestling only, may be joining the MPC in the sport, McLaren noted.

Assisting McLaren this season is Billy Burklund, along with volunteer assistant Devon Farragh.

The Mountaineers begin their season Saturday at the Westwood Super Duals.

On Tuesday, IM is at Kingsford at 5 p.m. The first home meet of the Mountaineers’ season is Thursday in the Central Middle School Gymnasium at 5 p.m.