After every off-season workout, regular season practice, highly competitive tournament and Empire Conference dual match, this is what an Ithaca College wrestler strives for.

Following every major decision, technical fall, pin fall, ounce of blood, sweat and tear drop released, this is what an Ithaca College wrestler lives for — nationals.

Last weekend at the Empire Conference Championships in Rochester, N.Y., the Blue and Gold finished third in the team standings behind SUNY-Cortland and SUNY-Brockport and qualified five wrestlers for the NCAA Championships in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, next weekend — senior Jon Gregory (125 pounds), senior Chad Winowich (133 pounds), junior Jeremy Stierly (141 pounds), junior Blaine Woszczak (149 pounds) and senior Willie Horwath (157 pounds).

“Obviously, we could’ve sent more to Iowa, and we were hoping to send more, but not winning the conference, that’s just a stranger point system,” Winowich said. “Cortland won because they had five guys get third, but we had seven in the finals and four winning. So we outperformed them, but I guess the point system wasn’t in our favor.”

While they’re not taking the seven or eight they aspired for, the Bombers are still optimistic that a National Championship is in their reach.

“I’m not worried by any means,” Winowich said. “We’re sending the first five [in our lineup] and that’s it, but four of us are All-Americans already, so we know what it takes.”

Horwath said Head Coach Marty Nichols made it clear to him and Woszczak on Saturday night after the conference tournament that past Ithaca teams that have won a National Championship did so with only five wrestlers.

Gregory, who was Ithaca’s only qualifier by way of a Wild Card bid, said the Bombers’ preparation for nationals is basically the same it’s been all year. The one deviation is the practices get a little shorter but much more intense.

“We tailor the game plan a little bit,” Gregory said. “A lot of it is just keeping in good shape, and it’s a lot of fine-tuning. At this point, we’re not going to change our styles a lot. It’s fine-tuning and more mental preparation than anything.”

Even though everything is pretty much the same, Horwath, an All-American last year, said that he and the other wrestlers who qualified for nationals will get the most attention in the practices leading up to the big event.

“There’s a lot more time for the coaching staff to just focus on us five and to improve our technique and strategy,” he said.

However, that doesn’t mean that Horwath, Gregory, Winowich, Woszczak and Stierly will be the only ones lacing up their wrestling shoes and putting on their gear in practice.

“With this kind of team, everybody is pretty much there,” Gregory said. “What we said from day one with the goal being National Championship — 10 guys aren’t going to make up our National Championship team or five guys aren’t going to make it up. It’s going to be all 30 of us. Guys really see that because without guys like [junior] Junior Amazan or a [sophomore] Seth Ecker pushing a guy like Winowich in practice every day, a guy like Winowich isn’t going to reach his goals without those guys.”

With a large group of seniors on the team, Horwath said the Bombers have a good chance of winning the crown.

“If we get five guys in the finalists or five champions, we could win the damn thing,” Horwath said.