The mats are placed on the floor. The stands are pulled out for the spectators. The raspy sound system is revved up. Sometimes, the lights are even dimmed for effect.

But despite the electric atmosphere of Ithaca’s home wrestling meets, the No. 7 ranked team often goes overlooked because of a limited home schedule.

Junior co-captain, 125-pound Jon Gregory, who is red-shirting this year because of three herniated disks in his neck, said he thinks more home events would spread a higher awareness of the team throughout the campus.

“People forget that the past four years in a row we’ve cracked the top 10 in the country at some point so … the most frustrating thing is not getting as much support as we feel we deserve just from the campus community,” Gregory said.

So far this season, the only wrestling action Ben Light Gymnasium has seen was the annual Ithaca Invitational on Nov. 9 and 10, a dual meet against Rochester Institute of Technology on Dec. 11, a dual meet against

SUNY-Oneonta yesterday and the final home event, another dual meet against Wilkes University, which will take place Saturday.

Junior heavyweight Joe Goetz said he would prefer more home matches, but they are used to the constant traveling, and it does not have a major effect on them.

“We’ve been wrestling well everywhere,” Goetz said. “We wrestled well at Lycoming [College]. We wrestled well at States in Oswego. It’s always nice [to have] a home meet and [to] not have to travel, but it really doesn’t matter too much to us.”

 However, the South Hill squad is not the only team in the country that is being slighted of home exposure. According to Head Coach Marty Nichols, who is in charge of making his team’s schedule every year, every wrestling team in the country regardless of division has the same situation.

“It’s just the nature of the sport where you usually have eight teams, and you wrestle four away and four home every year,” Nichols said.

While it is unfortunate that this is the way the scheduling goes, there is consolation in the fact that the Bombers get to face the top teams in all divisions. Gregory said though the team is traveling constantly, the diverse competition from all around the country has benefits for his squad.

“It’s a gift and a curse as far as not having a lot of home meets,” Gregory said.

Despite constantly being on the road, the Bombers take pride in representing South Hill no matter where they have traveled to in the country.

So far the team has traveled as far as the Brute/Zac Jarzynka Sunshine Wrestling Classic in Oviedo, Fla.

Because the Blue and Gold are ranked as the No. 7 team in the country, the team has to keep the right mind-set, Goetz said.

Regardless of whether they’re wrestling on the familiar Ithaca blue mats, they need to maintain their strong reputation.

“We’re mentally tough to the point where it’s just like all we really need is the mat, and we’ll do our thing,” Goetz said.