After a record-setting season for the Binghamton University wrestling team, it all comes down to this.

Five members of the Bearcats are representing BU in this year’s double-elimination national tournament at the Scottstrade Center in St. Louis, which began Thursday afternoon and is set to conclude Saturday night.

The Bearcats, who finished the regular season ranked No. 19 in the country, achieved another milestone by sending two seeded wrestlers to the national tournament for the first time in the program’s history: 149-pound junior Donnie Vinson (No. 4) and 157-pound senior Justin Lister (No. 9). Rounding out BU’s NCAA roster are 184-pound junior Nate Schiedel, 197-pound sophomore Cody Reed and freshman heavyweight Nick Gwiazdowski.

“We’re peaking at the right time,” BU head coach Pat Popolizio said. “We’re hitting that stride right now.”

No strangers to the national stage, Vinson, Lister and Schiedel are each making their third appearance at the NCAA tournament. The three hope that their remarkable seasons will end on the highest possible note in the biggest of arenas.

“I’ve definitely got my head on straight and have trained differently with [Popolizio],” said Vinson (33-4), who dropped three of his four matches this season to the nation’s top-seeded wrestlers in his weight class. “All four of us have studied each other, and all of us are going to try to do something different and have better matches than we previously did.”

Reed and Gwiazdowski are making their first appearances at the tournament. Reed (23-16) said that he has gained some extra confidence under the leadership of Vinson and Lister, even as an unseeded selection in the tournament.

“I’ve been an underdog my whole life,” he said. “I like wrestling with a chip on my shoulder and having something to prove. It gives me an edge.”

Gwiazdowski is focusing on what he can accomplish this weekend and acknowledged that he is grateful that he earned a NCAA-berth as a freshman.

“I try not to look at my next three years because what if something happens [health-wise]?” he said. “I’ve worked so hard this year, I might as well finish where I want to be, which is a national title and All-American.”

Popolizio expressed disappointment in the NCAA committee’s decision not to select 165-pound senior Matt Kaylor, who qualified for the national tournament his sophomore season and posted a 21-8 record this year.

Kaylor wraps up his stellar Binghamton career with 112 victories, tied for second-most in the program’s 46-year history.

But Popolizio said he still believes the team’s confidence is at an all-time high with this core of five.

“These five guys have [played a major] role in our success this season,” he said. “These guys have stepped up when we’ve needed them and they’ve have had big wins against certain teams; the same thing’s going to have to happen at the national tournament. We’ve got to win when it matters.”