You break a sweat just walking into the Manchester High School wrestling room. And that’s sort of the point as 40 bodies cram into the 40-foot by 40-foot padded room.

Barely 10 minutes into live wrestling and nearly every sweatshirt in the room is soaked through. The darker the shirts get, the harder they’re working. This practice is heading in the right direction.

Manchester coach Steve Vlcek paces through the room, barking loud words of encouragement, stopping only to send half the team to the track, where they sprint with practice partners on their back.

The half that just completed their laps is ushered back into the room, strangely enough, for the tougher of the two workouts.

Inside the room, the wrestlers battle. Rarely does the action stop. The time of year for drawn out periods of instruction are long gone. Matches in December and January go to the technician, or the strongman. Whoever’s left standing this time of year better be both, and ready to brawl for six minutes.

The Flying Dutchmen are preparing to face Decatur in a quarterfinal of the Division 4 MHSAA team state tournament at the Kellogg Center in Battle Creek on Friday, yet rarely is the opponent mentioned.

“That’s a Decatur Raider on you back,” Clinton coach Kevin Beazley - who is helping out at practice - yells once, more as motivation than in reference to a specific strategy.

“The way I look at it is, they’re going to do what they’re going to do,” Vlcek says. “We wrestle our style and we should be fine.”

More of a concern to Vlcek than preparing for specific opponents at the beginning of the week was the energy level of his four seniors whose individual careers were ended on Saturday. When they failed to place in the top four at regionals, the ultimate goal of making it the individual state tournament was gone.

Vlcek wondered how would they react without that motivation. Though there’s obviously a team element, wrestling is an individual sport at its root and Vlcek was concerned about their energy level the Monday after their individual dreams had been crushed. The team still needs them this weekend.

“They came to practice with a lot of energy, which was really good for me to see,” says Vlcek. “It’s about the team now, and they came in with positive attitudes, ready to work toward our team goal.”

Though Vlcek barely mentions two-time defending state champion Hudson at the end of practice, that opponent is never far from the Flying Dutchmen’s collective minds. If both teams win their quarterfinal matches, they would face each other in the semifinals on Saturday morning.

Manchester is well aware of the exploits of the Tigers, who last year eliminated the Flying Dutchmen during regional competition and had 10 individual state qualifiers - seven champions - qualify out of the same region as Manchester last Saturday.

Manchester doesn’t lack for experience or depth with seven state qualifiers and three champions emerging from regionals last weekend and trips to the team state semifinals in 2009 and finals in 2008.

Vlcek sees a swagger of confidence among the group that he hopes can resonate no matter who is opposite them through the weekend.

“Mainly it’s a mentality. Believing we can beat (Hudson),” says senior 125 pounder Austin Deacons, who was state runner up last year and who at 49-2 has as much reason to be confident as anyone. “We’ve been putting them up on this pedestal way too long.

“Yeah, they’re a good team, but they’ve gotta get knocked off sometime.”

“They’re two-time state champs, but you can’t give them any respect (on the mat),” says Manchester’s 58-0 senior 119 pounder Ryan Abrigo. “You just gotta take things from them. They’re not gonaa give it up easy. You just gotta get after it.”

STATE FINALS

What: MHSAA Team Wrestling State Finals. Where: Kellogg Arena, Battle Creek. When: Manchester (37-2) faces Decatur (35-2) in a Division 4 quarterfinal at 1 p.m. Friday. If they win, they would advance to a semifinal at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. All finals start at 4 p.m. Saturday. History: Manchester set a school record for dual wins this season. The senior class is the winningest in school history with trips to the state semifinals in 2009 and a championship match in 2008. Matches to watch Friday: Between them, Decatur and Manchester have individual state qualifiers at 11 of 14 weight classes. But only at 215 pounds do both teams have qualifiers, Manchester’s Austin Hamilton (43-10) and Decatur’s Ruben Chavez Jr. (45-11). Decatur might look to move 112-pounder Luke Bell (45-2) - 2010 state champ at 103 - up to 119 to face undefeated Ryan Abrigo (58-0). Manchester may look to bump Cody Render (41-17) up from 152 to 160 to take on Decatur state qualifier Zachary MacKellar (45-12). Watch Live: Can't make it to Battle Creek this weekend? No worries, all matches at the state finals will be streamed live at MHSAA.tv and FSDetroit.com.

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.