The 2003-04 Ohio State wrestling team returns six accomplished seniors this season and hopes that strong core will allow them to improve upon a Top 15 national preseason ranking.

The wrestlers will begin to prove themselves this weekend at the season’s first tournament – the Michigan State Open in East Lansing, Mich.

“We’ve got an incredible amount of leadership and an incredible amount of experience,” senior heavyweight Tommy Rowlands said.

That leadership and experience stems largely from the returning seniors.

Rowlands and John Clark (165 pounds) were both All-Americans last season. In addition, Rowlands, Clark, Blake Kaplan (174), Jesse Leng (133) and Jeff Ratliff (141) were NCAA Championship qualifiers.

Rowlands, a three-time All-American, was the 2002 NCAA national champion, but a late-season injury prevented him from defending his championship the following year. Fully healed, he says he wants to re-capture the championship again.

“I’m ready for the challenge,” Rowlands said. “I feel like I should win the national tournament; anything less than that is a big disappointment.”

Clark is a three-time NCAA qualifier and led the Buckeyes with 40 wins last season. He needs only three additional wins to reach his 100th career victory. Clark is ranked fourth by Intermat.com’s preseason poll and fifth in both the Amateur Wrestling News and Wrestling Mall’s polls.

Kaplan and Ratliff are each ranked in the nation’s Top 15 in Intermat.com’s preseason poll.

In addition to the individual preseason rankings, the team is ranked 10th by W.I.N. Magazine, 12th by Intermat.com and 15th in the WrestlingMall.com poll.

Despite the praise, assistant coach Ken Ramsey said the Buckeyes are not impressed by their early rankings.

“I think we are going to place much higher than that this year,” Ramsey said. “We’re not real happy with that early ranking. I think that for us to expect anything less than Top 5 will be a big mistake.”

“I hope that 15th ranking is not an indication where we’re at, because I feel we’re better than that,” Clark said.

OSU is one of 16 teams participating in the double-elimination Michigan State Open that mainly features wrestlers from the Big Ten and Mid-American conferences. The tournament also invites people who are older than college age to participate.

At last year’s open, the Buckeyes won five championships in the non-team scoring event.

After the Michigan State Open, the Buckeyes begin a schedule that pits them against ranked opponents every week – including Oklahoma and Lehigh – which finished third and fourth, respectively, at the NCAA Championships.

OSU will also compete against six conference opponents that were in the Top 18 at the championships.

Clark said he likes his team’s chances.

“We’ve got a lot of talented guys and just hope that everyone can put it together this year.”