CALABASAS — A gash ran across the right side of Calabasas wrestler Arel Francke.
Not that he minded. It was a small reminder of the life he has chosen as a combat sports athlete.
Francke, who is a 15-year-old going into this junior year of high school, originally trained in jiu-jitsu before he switched to wrestling.
He has been the catalyst for Calabasas’s wrestling program and helped make it the team to beat in the Marmonte League. Franke tied a school record with 30 pinfall victories in one season.
Project 8 Wrestling sends five girls to Fargo Nationals
Malia Rainey of Calabasas wins girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year
“He’s a methodical attacker,” Calabasas wrestling coach Charlie Lind said of Francke, who wrestles at 175 pounds. “He finds his opportunities and if he sees it, he’s going to attack. Those 30 pins tell the difference.”
While Francke made his mark, there’s more work to be done after he finished sixth at CIF Southern Section Masters and failed to qualify for the CIF State tournament.
Not reaching state hasn’t deterred Francke, who made strides in 2026.
“I learned how far I could push myself and how much work and dedication it takes to get to where you want to go,” Francke said. “I was training 3-7 hours per day, eating clean and learning to recover. Those are things that will take me further in the long run.”
Francke is heading to North Dakota to grow his skills in the Fargo Nationals, the largest wrestling tournament in the country. He’ll compete in the tournament that runs July 10-19 with the goal of adding more skills for next season.
He’s competed in convention centers in Bakersfield and gyms in Fresno, but nothing to the magnitude of what he’ll face in the FargoDome.
Lind was a competitive wrestler in Indiana and attended Roncalli High School where he reached the “semistate round” — the equivalent of the state semifinals — at 112 pounds in 2007.
“It is a floor full of kids who are absolute dogs,” Lind said of the Fargo Nationals. “There’s more learning to do and it’s not just on the mat. You listen to other coaches and hear the things they say. You just take everything in and try to learn as much as you can. It’s like going into the mountain. Fargo is real.”
Progression rather than perfection is on the mind of Francke as he trains with Lind through the Calabasas-based program BETSU.
That’s just fine for Francke. He has zero expectations other than to compete and try to win the next match. Maybe the experience will allow Francke to rise to what no wrestler before him as done for Calabasas and win a CIF state championship.
Francke won the Cadet Greco-Roman state championship and placed fifth in Freestyle in May.
Now there’s more to learn for Francke in North Dakota.
“Wrestling is a very mental sport,” Francke said. “It’s not just physical.”