GREENSBORO — This past weekend marked the end of Washington’s wrestling season. The boys sent half a dozen to the state championships in Greensboro. Neill Jennings was the lone Pam Pack representative to make it to the podium. He finished in fifth place in the 285-pound division with losses to the second- and third-place winners. It was an impressive way to wrap up his high-school career.

The other five, who will all return next season, fell to wrestlers that finished top-six in their respective weight classes. Jacob Smith went 2-2. Simeon Pope, D.K. Credle and Austin Coward all finished 1-2. Andrew Ferguson fell in both his matches, losing to the third- and fourth-place wrestlers in his division.

As a team, Washington finished in 26th place out of the 73 2-A teams to make it. There’s a lot of excitement already for next season, and rightfully so. All but two of the team’s 14 starters will be coming back. That, combined with the top-notch talent coming from P.S. Jones’ team, which went undefeated, should help the Pam Pack reach some of its lofty goals.

“I thought our guys wrestled really well. We had some really close matches that could have gone either way,” coach Chris Penhollow said. “You’ve got to find whatever you can out of a loss as far as positives.

“I told the guys, ‘Hey, it’s not like we went out there and lost to guys that couldn’t place at all. We lost to the better kids in our weight class.’ It’s something to hang our hats on and it helps motivate them for next year. … Going into the offseason, we’re as optimistic as can be based on what we saw and what we’ve got coming back next year.”

Ferguson qualified for the state championships as a junior. Pope, Coward and Smith will all be seniors next season. Their experience competing for 2-A titles this season will help guide an already successful program to greater heights next year.

“Drew is one of those kids that has been wrestling,” Penhollow said. “Even before middle school, he was involved with the club team. … He’s a tall kid. Once his strength catches up with his size, I’m expecting big things out of him the next couple of years.”

The boys are acting on their excitement for next November. Penhollow is giving them time away from the mats because a lot of them play spring sports. However, he’s already trying to rally a group for a summer camp at NC State this summer.

“We want to give them some time away,” Penhollow said. “We just want to let them get away, focus their attention somewhere else and try to get together for four or five days over the summer. We want to go to this camp at NC State and then hit the ground running once August gets here.”

Experience has been one of Washington’s most valuable traits for some time now. The team doubled its number of state-championship contenders from last year to this year.

Penhollow and company have found plenty of success, so he doesn’t see much that needs shaking up. He hopes the experience of the returning starters can help the newcomers jump right into things without missing a beat.

“It would be great if we could get eight, nine or maybe 10 (to states) next year,” Penhollow said. “I don’t think that’s unreasonable with what we’ve got coming back and we’ve got some lighter middle-school kids coming in that we hope will make a strong impact out of the gate.

“We’re excited from top to bottom for next year.”