The Stanford wrestling squad took a big step toward setting its starting lineup in place for the season on Saturday, as the team held its annual intrasquad Wrestle-Offs in Burnham Pavilion. Overall, Stanford coach Kerry McCoy was happy with what he saw from his athletes in the first event of the season for the Cardinal.

“We’ve got a bunch of things to work on, and still there were a couple of weight classes that weren’t necessarily decided because of injuries,” McCoy said. “But they put that singlet on and wrestled with pride as Stanford wrestlers should do.”

According to McCoy, there are three starting spots still somewhat in doubt, starting at 157 pounds, where No. 6 Josh Zupancic is a heavy favorite to retain his starting spot as a senior. He was forced to sit out with a minor injury on Saturday. The same holds true at 174 pounds, as junior Luke Feist is also likely to be the starter despite not competing on Saturday.

“If this were an official competition, I think they both could have wrestled,” McCoy said. “They were both in a situation where it wasn’t a necessity for them to wrestle, [so we decided to] err on the side of caution.”

The 197-pound weight class, then, is perhaps the most undecided weight in the Cardinal lineup. Sophomore Jake Johnson will likely earn the starting nod there over true-freshman Matt Winterbourne, who was also held out of competition on Saturday.

Several starting spots were determined or cemented Saturday, though, starting in the 125-pound weight class where two-time All-American No. 5 Tanner Gardner successfully defended his starting spot with a decisive first-period pin of freshman Blair Matsuura. At 133 pounds, redshirt freshman Justin Paulsen held off true-freshman Porfirio Madrigal for a tense 11-10 victory; at 165 pounds, redshirt sophomore Peter Miller also joined the starting lineup for the first time in his career with an 11-7 decision. 141-pound sophomore Matt Kim successfully defended his starting spot with a 7-5 overtime victory.

In one of the more action-packed bouts of the day, redshirt-freshman Lucas Espericueta topped sophomore Eric Minnick in a 7-4 match. Espericueta brought his own brand of aggressiveness to the mats, attacking throughout the event and looking especially strong in the neutral position.

“One of the things I tell these guys is to go as hard as you can as long as you can, and he does that,” McCoy said of his freshman. “He’s got that fight in him where he refuses to let the guy have anything. He’s just going to go hard, and if he pushes the pace on the mat, he can be real successful.”

In the afternoon’s final competition, heavyweight senior Phil Doerner earned a 3-2 decision over senior Mark Shughart, who spent the last three years as a thrower for the track and field team before deciding to give wrestling a shot this offseason.

“It’s my first match since last year, so I just had to learn to deal with my anxiety wrestling again,” Doerner said. “But Mark’s tough, he works hard, he’s just a big athletic kid, and he gives me trouble every day [in practice]. It was definitely a good, hard-fought match, which is what I needed.”

Doerner was also confident that the overall experience of the wrestle-offs would be key in the Cardinal’s road back to the mats this season.

“It really helps us with competing,” he said. “It teaches us how to deal with getting nervous before a match, did you warm up too long, and things like that. So it really helps us to get into the right mind-frame to compete later on.”

This Saturday, several Cardinal wrestlers are scheduled to take part in the Menlo Open, in Menlo Park, Calif., which will run all day. Stanford’s first dual meet of the season is scheduled for Nov. 9 at Fort Hays State in Tecumseh, Kans.