CARLSBAD ---- A more refined Chace Eskam will hit the mat Friday for the opening rounds of the CIF State Wrestling Championships at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.

The Carlsbad High senior, who even his coach had to admit was a bit of a brute early in his career, will be taking his third turn at the state meet, entering in excellent physical shape, as always, but with a stronger skill set and an keener appreciation for the technical side of his sport.

"This year I really made a conscious effort to work on my technique," Eskam said. "And it's a lot easier. It's a lot easier to make more moves, better moves. Once you know a certain move, you can do another move.

"Part of it is, I guess, just maturing as a wrestler. It builds on itself."

Eskam had all the right moves last weekend in El Centro where he won the CIF San Diego Section Masters title at 191 pounds after losing in the finals the two previous seasons.

"It would have been a huge upset if he had lost (at Masters) this year," Carlsbad coach Ross O'Briant said. "He had one bad match the whole season."

That came at the Doc Buchanan Invitational in January when he was pinned in the semifinals by Rodolfo Juarez of Fresno Central.

"I thought I'd probably lose some matches this year, but I was like, 'Oh, no one's going to pin me this year,' " Eskam said. "I thought I wasn't going to be pinned. He got a bar and just pinned me with it."

Apparently Eskam, who committed to Cal State Fullerton in December, did a good job of putting that defeat behind him.

"A loss like that just keeps your head on straight," Eskam said, "makes you take a hard look at your wrestling and makes you look at what you have to work on."

He heads off to Bakersfield ranked second in the state with a record of 46-3.

His other two losses came to the top-ranked wrestler in the state, Morgan McIntosh of Santa Ana Calvary Chapel, who won a state title last year at 173 pounds and was named the event's Champion of Champions.

As a sophomore, Eskam went two and out at the state tournament, losing his first two matches. Last season, he won his first-round match but ran into the eventual third-place finisher, Jesus Chavez of Yuba City River Valley, in the second round and lost a 7-3 decision that relegated him to the consolation bracket. He won another match there before falling by one point to another Calvary Chapel wrestler, Taylor Warden, and was eliminated.

But this time, O'Briant insists, Eskam is a different wrestler.

"I'd say a couple years ago he was a very physical wrestler," O'Briant said. "In the last couple of years he's really gotten his technique better. I mean, he's really spent time drilling in practice. He's gone to a lot of camps. And spent a ton of time in this room just working on little things.

"I think his technique right now is real good, especially for a big guy. As quick as he is and as strong as he is, he's kind of the whole package."

Those two years of hard-earned experience in Bakersfield have wiped the stars from Eskam's eyes and sharpened his focus.

"It's a lot different from all the other tournaments," he said. "Almost all the other tournaments you go to, no matter how tough they are, you usually have somebody that's not that great (in the) first match. ... You don't really see anybody who's too tough until two or three matches into it.

"At state you get somebody who got second or third in his Masters, who would be in the finals of any other tournament. But here that's just your first match."

Carlsbad's 173-pounder, Nick Heene, is a frequent training partner of Eskam.

"He's on such a higher level when I wrestle with him," Heene said, "it helps bring up my level."

No better evidence of that came in El Centro when Heene qualified for the state meet by making it to the Masters finals, where he lost to Rancho Bernardo's Jonathan Beck.

McIntosh will be the heavy favorite to win the 193-pound weight class this weekend, with Eskam, Juarez and Tommy Burriell of Clovis West among the top contenders.

Eskam's comments on his victory as an equally heavy favorite in the Masters meet last weekend indicate just how he feels about pre-tournament favorites though.

"I was favored to win it but anything could happen and you just have to take all your matches seriously," he said. "You don't know you're going to win it until you actually do."

Technically speaking, it sounds like Eskam likes his chances.