WEBSTER CITY – What you think will happen and what actually happens are always two separate things when the North Central Conference wrestling programs get together for their annual tournament.

Grapplers bump up or down weight classes. Upsets happen. Teams make unexpected surges.

So while Clarion-Goldfield-Dows enters Saturday’s 49th annual NCC tournament in Hampton as the odds on favorite to claim its second straight league championship, there will be seven other schools doing everything they can to unseat the Cowboys.

But can they?

“Obviously (CGD) would be the favorite, but we think we have enough kids and a good enough team to battle for it,” WCHS head coach Chad Hisler said. “We’re going to do the best we can and stress finishing as high as we can at each individual weight.”

There’s no doubt that WCHS has been the most consistent program in recent history. Second a season ago, the Lynx have won three crowns and placed in the top two in six of the last seven NCC tournaments.

WCHS would appear to have the best chance of unseating the Cowboys, but Hisler’s bunch will have to place higher than it’s seeded at more than a few weights to apply the pressure. Injuries have taken a toll on the Lynx; sophomore 132-pounder Luke Rohmiller continues to be sidelined with an ankle injury, and senior 145-pounder Carter Rholl will be forced to watch as well because of injury.

Freshman Cade Felts will continue to hold down the spot at 132, while junior Brandon Peck will take over at 145.

WCHS will be favored to win individual gold at the two heaviest weights. Top-ranked (Class 2A) 220-pounder Gavin Dinsdale and second-ranked heavyweight Cooper Lawson were both second a season ago.

“They obviously want to (win) it,” Hisler said of Dinsdale and Lawson. “But I don’t know if they’re putting any more stress on it than a regular tournament.”

Lynx freshman and fifth-ranked 113-pounder Drake Doolittle will be expected to reach the gold-medal round for a second encounter against 2015 state champion and No. 1-ranked Justin Portillo of CGD. Portillo beat Doolittle earlier this season, 5-4, but was on his back when time expired.

Can Doolittle push all the correct buttons and score the upset? If he can, WCHS could very well find itself right in the thick of the team title race late in the day.

“With the competition that (Doolittle) has faced, he knows he can compete with the very best,” Hisler said. “He’s wrestled quite a few really good kids and I think he has confidence in that.”

Lynx senior 126-pounder Cole Nokes and ninth-ranked senior 160-pounder Ryan Ferrari are likely to garner high seeds as well. Where Ferrari falls in the bracket will depend on whether or not sixth-ranked Josh Strohman of Algona competes. Strohman, a 2015 NCC champion, hasn’t wrestled since Dec. 12 because of an elbow injury, but he is expected to return at some point prior to the postseason.

A total of eight WCHS wrestlers that will compete placed in the top five at last year’s tournament. Ferrari and Gage Sadler (138) were also silver medalists. Carson Hartnett (120) placed third, Ashton High (195) was fourth, and Nokes and Zane Williams (152) were fifth.

Hisler says his team will need even better production this year.

“Getting all 14 guys to place, that’s something we can do,” he said. “There are places where we’ve been beat this year that we can get back and place higher.”

Six 2015 champions are expected to be in the field. Top-ranked Josh Portillo (120) joins his twin brother and Strohman, as do No. 1-ranked Ryan Leisure (138) of Clear Lake, No. 8-ranked Carter Barkema (138) of Hampton-Dumont, and No. 8-ranked Ryan Faught (152) of Clear Lake.

Faught will attempt to become just the eighth four-time NCC champion and potentially the last league gold medalist for longtime Lions’ head coach Gary Weber, who will retire at season’s end.

A total of 17 ranked individuals are set to compete.

Humboldt has won at least one individual title in 27 consecutive NCC tournaments; Zane Russell, the Wildcats’ 126-pounder, could be the team’s best shot to keep the streak alive.

Wrestling will get underway from Hampton-Dumont High School at 10 a.m.