The No. 1-ranked Brock wrestling team will test their might on the provincial stage this weekend.

The Badgers travel to Guelph to compete in the OUA Wrestling championships as the defending champs on Saturday, Feb. 2.

A total of nine Brock wrestlers return to the championships after winning individual gold medals last year, including Hannah Taylor, Samantha Romano, Emily Schaefer and Skylar Grote from the women's team and Ligrit Sadiku, Cruiz Manning, Ty Bridgwater, Clayton Pye and Richard Deschatelets from the men's squad.

"We expect full efforts both mentally and physically from our team to represent themselves, their team and our institution in the best way possible," said head coach Marty Calder. "If we do that, we ll have a positive outcome by Saturday night."

Calder added that its exciting to see Brock wrestlers, such as Garette Saunders and Daina Armstrong, compete on the provincial stage for the first time.

"Saunders has been a big addition, Calvin Daum as well, our mainstays on the men's side have shown great leadership," said Calder. "We have great leaders on our women's side too who are very excited about putting it on the line this weekend."

Saunders made a splash at the Ontario Juniors Championships in London last weekend with a gold medal.

As a team, the Badgers have placed first in six consecutive meets this season and are hungry for another provincial banner.

"I think our whole team has improved. We've had to maintain our edge," said Calder. "We'll see soon enough if we've done our jobs."